Unforgettable
by Groudon199
Summary: Olivia and I are visiting Equestria, and it seems there's no better time than now. Something called the Friendship Festival is being held, with ponies from all over coming to celebrate. Also, Olivia gets to see Songbird Serenade, her favorite pop artist, in concert for the first time! Well, the pony Songbird. [mild language, MLPEG characters in Equestria, MLP movie spoilers]
1. Opportunity

**A/N: If you haven't, I highly recommend reading my other stories to see what my OCs have gotten into prior to this trip. If you choose not to, their adventures will be summarized later in this story.  
**

 **Full character bios are on my profile, but here is a brief summary. Told from his POV, Cloudflare is light orange with short green-blue hair in the EG world. Olivia Frost is light grey with shoulder-length brown hair in the EG world, and she wears a below-the-knee prosthetic right leg (which is covered up in the EG world) and round glasses (same size as EG Twilight's).**

* * *

The customer walks over to the pick-up counter. 6:59. Almost done with my shift. I'll punch out after the next customer.

Working as a cashier at Taco Haven isn't the most glamorous job, but it's a decent way to earn some money during the summer and school year.

Someone walks through the front doors. Huh, she's a little late this week...

"Hiya, Cloudflare!" She walks up to my counter.

"Hi, Sonata," I respond. "Running late today, I see." Sonata's usually here at around 5:30.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Dagi needed my help with something."

"At least you finished before my shift ended. So what can I get you? The usual?"

She nods. "Mm-hmm! Two #3s, extra sauce!"

I put in her order. She hands me her money and I give her change, then she walks to the pick-up counter.

And with that, my shift is over. I turn around. Sunshine Blossom is waiting to take over. "All yours," I say as I step away.

"Thanks," she says.

I go in the back and change out of my uniform. I punch out, then leave through the employee exit. I look through the window as I get to the front, and I see Sonata sitting at her regular table.

Hm... I've seen her every Tuesday since I started working here, but we've never had time to chat for more than 10 seconds. Now would be a good time.

I put my work clothes in my car, then walk through the front door and over to Sonata. She's already halfway finished with her first taco.

"This seat taken?" I ask.

She looks up, then shakes her head. "Mm-mmm," she says, mouth full.

I sit across from her. "So how have things been since you were de-sirened?"

"A lot better than we thought it would. Going from near-immortal human/siren hybrids to humans that'll only live another hundred years at most was a bit of a shock, but now that we've lived like this for a while, it's actually not too bad." She looks at my geode. "Nice pendant."

"Thanks." I guess there's no harm in telling her. Even if she tells the others, they can't do anything. "There's actually an interesting story behind this. Remember when you saw me on a bus earlier this year?"

"I remember that. I was _so_ surprised to see you again!"

"Same here. Our class was on a trip to Camp Everfree. Long story short, one of the people who runs the place was using geodes infused with Equestrian magic to keep the camp from being shut down, the magic was affecting me and my friends, she was overcome with magic and tried to trap the camp in a dome of brambles to save it, we defeated her, and we became the new owners of the geodes."

"Huh... So... you have magic now?"

"Yup. Well, I've had magic before then. I got direct exposure to Equestrian magic during the Friendship Games. You know about the Friendship Games, right?"

"The competition between Canterlot High and Crystal Prep that CHS has never won?"

"Uh-huh. Anyway, after I was exposed, my singing voice got a lot better. Like, a _lot_ better. It wasn't as bad as you girls without your pendants, but bad enough where I wouldn't be caught dead singing in public. While we were at camp, the magic girls and I got new magic abilities, which we can activate at any time with our geodes." I look around. There are only a few people sitting in booths. That rules out a demonstration. "Thanks to this geode – which I call the Geode of Sirenity – I have the same power you girls had. I can manipulate people by singing."

"You... You _can?"_ she says in surprise.

"It was a surprise to me, too."

"But how? You're just a human, and we didn't give you any of our magic!"

"Well, clearly you did. I wouldn't just gain siren powers out of nowhere."

"How, then? If that was something we could do, I'd surely know about it!"

"Maybe it's a secret technique only Adagio knows. Look, however it happened doesn't matter. Point is, I have your power."

"And you can absorb others' negativity?"

"No. My geode doesn't work like your pendants. It can't absorb anything. Even if it did, I wouldn't abuse it. I'll only use my power in an emergency. I got all the evil out of my system when I teamed up with you."

"That's too bad. I honestly think you'd make a good siren. Well, a good _evil_ siren. Also, 'Sirenity'? Really?" she asks, narrowing her eyes.

 _She's_ questioning it? I'd expect something like that from Aria, not Sonata. If anything, Sonata would be the siren that likes it. "I think it's clever. Calling it the 'Geode of Siren Powers' would be boring, and it's a play on the word 'serenity'."

"Why not just call it a geode and say you have our powers?"

"Everybody else was naming _their_ geodes."

"It's just... _We_ didn't name our pendants."

"Well, I'm not you." Speaking of the three sirens... "Anyway, enough about object naming. I'm kinda curious. How exactly _did_ you get banished here? Did you three and Starswirl have an epic battle to the death?"

"Uh... N-not exactly," she says nervously. "We kinda... got tricked into coming here."

Huh? "What do you mean?"

"See... It wasn't just Starswirl. He had some other ponies with him. They tried to stop us from doing our thing."

"Manipulating the other ponies?"

"Getting them to argue with each other. We ended up chasing one of them. We didn't see the portal, and the pony we were chasing flew out of the way at the last second. By the time we saw the portal, it was too late, and next thing we knew, we were in this world."

Uh... Hm... "Well... That was... kinda lame."

"Tell me about it... At least when _your friends_ challenged us, they didn't throw us away like a taco wrapper." She puts her head in her hands. "So embarrassing..." She picks up her second taco, unwraps it, and takes a bite.

"At least they didn't open the portal underneath you while you were sleeping." Which they probably would've done, if that was an option.

Sonata looks at me. "Uh... Your Sirenity thing is glowing."

I look down. As she said, my geode has started glowing. "Uh... Yeah... I should probably get going."

"Why?"

"Our geodes are linked. If any of us use one of them too much, it charges the others. They activate, can't be shut off, and the effect is magnified." I stand up. "I'll explain more another time. Supercharged siren powers are really –"

"You *** liar!"

"I _had_ to lie! You overreact to _everything!"_

Too late. "Dangerous..." I look in that direction. Two women at a booth behind me are standing up, getting into a heated argument.

"I do not!" One girl shoves the other.

"Well, what do you call _this?!"_ The other girl shoves her back.

"Wow... _Someone_ put a little too much cheese in their tacos." Sonata says.

I need to get out of here. "It's been fun, Sonata, but I gotta go. See ya next Tuesday." I quickly walk to the exit, then make a beeline for my car.

Out of all our powers, mine is the most dangerous when amplified. I don't even have to sing to get people worked up. The first time this happened, it caused people to actually fight each other. It's a good thing I was able to get away from other people quickly this time. My powers have a limited reach, and the effect wears off as soon as the affected people outside of that range. I imagine the sirens weren't as limited, but they didn't need to activate a magical object to manipulate others.


	2. To Be Pony

Olivia gets a text. She checks her phone.

"She's outside," she says.

"Alright, then." I stand up and hold my hand out. She takes my hand and I pull her up. She shuts off her phone and sets it next to her bed.

"You sure you want to wear your glasses?" I ask as we leave her room.

"I'm sure," she says. "If I have trouble with my contacts, it'll be a pain in the flank to fix them without fingers."

I chuckle. I see what she did there.

We walk downstairs and leave the house. Sunset's car is parked in front of Olivia's house. We walk over and I open the right rear door. "Ladies first."

Olivia smiles. "Such a gentleman." She steps inside and slides over. I join her and close the door behind me.

"Ready for your trip to Equestria?" Sunset asks us.

"You bet!" Olivia says. "I've been looking forward to it all week!"

Both of us have been eager to check out Equestria ever since Starlight Glimmer visited this world. Olivia figured if Sunset can bring Starlight here, there wouldn't be a problem if we checked out the land of ponies for a while, and Twilight agreed. It was just a matter of finding a time that was right for all of us to make it happen. Twilight's been busy with princess stuff, and the two of us are only free on the weekends.

Speaking of Sunset, her new outfit is... kind of an odd choice. She's still wearing a black jacket, except this one has fake spikes on the collar. It sorta reminds me of when she ruled over the school. No idea why she'd _want_ to go back to a look like that. It didn't bother me all that much, but Olivia was frightened as soon as she saw it. All of our friends had to convince her that Sunset wasn't going back to her old ways.

And again, I have to point out how lax the school is about spiked clothing or accessories. I can understand the sirens getting away with it, but _Sunshim?_

"Can one of you check my journal?" Sunset asks. "Starlight's writing back to me." She grabs her journal from the front seat and holds it behind her.

With one page in the journal glowing, Olivia takes it from her and opens to that page.

 _"Starlight?"_ Olivia asks. "I thought you communicated with _Twilight_ with this."

"The Princess is out of town," Sunset says. "Starlight is gonna meet you two on the other side.

"Hmm... Starlight says the portal should be open now."

It _should_ be open? "What does she mean by it _should_ be open?"

"Starlight's never opened the portal before," Sunset says. "She might not be sure she did it properly."

"I guess we'll find out when we get there," Olivia says.

A minute later, we arrive at CHS.

"This is your stop," Sunset says.

"Alright," Olivia says. "Thanks for the ride, Sunset." She opens her door.

"No problem."

I open my door. "If we're not back in a few days, send a rescue team," I jokingly say.

"I'll alert the Royal Guards," Sunset says with a smile.

"We'll be able to come back, right?" Olivia asks.

"Of course!" Sunset says. "Twilight and I have gone back and forth a few times, after all."

"Right..."

Both of us get out and close the doors. Olivia walks over to me, then grabs my hand. We walk to the statue base.

Olivia takes a deep breath. "Man... Now that it's actually happening, I'm super nervous."

"Would you say you're _hella_ nervous?" I ask.

She chuckles. "If I still used that word, that would be pretty accurate." She puts her hand through the portal. On the other side, a light grey pony leg appears where her hand would be. Just like when I did it. She takes her hand out, then looks at me. "Okay. Let's go."

We kiss, then step through the portal.

* * *

" _WAAAAAAAA_ –oof!" I crash into what feels like a pile of books, then Olivia crashes into me.

Ah, damn... "Nnh... Was that _supposed_ to happen?"

"I don't know," I hear Starlight say. "That happened to Sunset when she came through, but not me."

"Man... That kinda felt like a vibrant Moongate," Olivia says. "Hi, Starlight." I feel her get off of me. "Wha–" She falls on top of me again. "Shh... Okay, two legs, bad." She stands again.

I look at her. She's now a light grey unicorn with what looks like a 3-foot tail. Like in our world, she's missing the lower half of her right leg – right hind leg, in this case – being replaced with a prosthetic limb. Unlike in our world, the prosthesis is on full display, not covered by anything. It looks identical to the prostheses I've seen online, except with a hoof at the bottom and it's a bit shorter. Under the prosthesis is a light grey sock that matches her coat color.

I carefully get to my hooves and take my first few steps. It's not as difficult as I expected. It's actually a little like crawling. I walk over to the mirror and look at my reflection. My fur is slightly darker than my skin was. I also have wings. They look like the wings I get when I siren up.

"Wow, this is tough..." I look at Olivia's reflection. She's gingerly walking over to me. "It's like I'm 13 again..."

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. Just... Whoa...!" She almost loses her balance. "Just not used to walking on three and a half legs."

I look at Starlight in the mirror. "So... Where _is_ Twilight?"

"She and her friends are putting the finishing touches on the Friendship Festival."

"The... Friendship Festival?"

"It's a _huge_ celebration in Canterlot. I'm helping Trixie with the fireworks, but Twilight wanted me to escort the two of you first."

"Couldn't she just... I don't know... teleport us there?"

"Teleportation isn't as simple as you think. The further the distance, the more strain it puts on the teleporter, and it's amplified when sending multiple ponies. Even _I_ couldn't teleport all 3 of us that far."

"That's unfortunate."

I turn to the side and look at the rest of myself. My tail is short – about 1 foot long – and there's an image of a cloud on my flank.

I sigh. "Because my name's **Cloud** flare... Why couldn't it have been a flame...?"

"What could've been a flame?" Olivia asks. She looks at herself in the mirror. "A unicorn, eh?" She turns to the side. "Huh... My prosthesis looks different."

"Well, yeah. You're a pony now."

"But inanimate objects that pass through the portal are supposed to stay the same."

"Your prosthesis is essentially a part of you, right? That's probably why it changed."

"I guess, but how would the portal know that?"

"Never underestimate the power of magic."

She chuckles. "Well, it doesn't look the same as it does in our world, so I guess it's okay to leave it uncovered." She turns to the other side. "Uh... Starlight? What's this thing on my butt?"

"That's your cutie mark," Starlight says.

"My... what?"

"Cutie mark," I say. "It represents a pony's special talent."

"You know about cutie marks?" Starlight asks me.

"Sunset told me about Equestria when we became friends." I look at Olivia's reflection. Her cutie mark is an olive. "So mine's a cloud and yours is an olive..."

"What are our special talents supposed to be?" she asks.

"Hmm..." Starlight says. "Well, I don't think they're _your_ talents, but rather your pony counterparts'."

"Okay, then what are _their_ talents?" I ask.

"I think Flare is either on the weather patrol or a weather factory worker."

"Huh... That actually sounds kinda cool," I say.

"But Olivia..." Starlight continues. "I have no idea what _yours_ could mean."

"Eh... I'm okay with not knowing," Olivia says. "It's not like everybody at the festival is gonna ask what my special talent is."

"Don't worry. Ponies aren't _that_ nosy. Also, it's 'every **pony** ', not 'every **body** '."

"Are... Are you serious?"

"Uh... yes?" Starlight says, confused. "What's wrong with it?"

Olivia sighs, then carefully turns toward Starlight. "It just... It sounds so childish! I mean, it _does_ makes a lot more sense than when Fluttershy does it. 'Gather 'round, everyhamster!' 'Lunch time, everypuppy!' 'Hold still, everypet!' Ugh, so dumb!"

Starlight gets in Olivia's face. "Are you calling my friend dumb?" she angrily says.

"No... I'm calling _my_ friend dumb!" Olivia says, defensively. "Well, not Fluttershy herself. Just her wordplay."

"W-well..." I interrupt. "How about 'everyone'? Is that acceptable?"

Starlight backs up, not taking her eyes off Olivia. "That's fine."

"I didn't mean to upset you," Olivia says. "That type of thing just _really_ gets on my nerves."

Starlight takes a deep breath. "It's okay. We _all_ have pet peeves."

"You could've done without the 'dumb' comment," I say.

"I know," Olivia says. "I was just saying what came to mind. Kinda like you, sometimes."

"Is that a bad thing?"

She smiles. "Not at all. I like that about you, even if you _do_ say stuff at the worst times."

We kiss. Even with both of us being ponies instead of humans, kissing her feels right.

"So, Flare..." Starlight says. "What's up with your wings?"

"These are the wings I get when I pony up. It's because of the siren magic I possess."

"Siren magic? As in, the sirens from over a thousand years ago?"

"Uh-huh. Starswirl and his group banished them to my world." In one of the laziest ways possible. "They eventually surfaced at CHS looking like normal high school girls."

"Oh, right! Sunset told me about that. At least everything worked out for you."

"Yup. That's why I can't _completely_ hate them."

"Well, you probably shouldn't go outside with those wings. If they see you, the Pillars will probably send you back to your world – or worse, a different world – before anypony can explain."

"The pillars?"

"Starswirl and his group."

"They're still alive after over a thousand years?"

* * *

"I see..." I say after Starlight finishes her explanation.

"So... he has to stay here?" Olivia asks.

"Not at all," Starlight says. "I know a spell that'll make them look like normal pegasus wings. Hold still." Her horn starts to glow and she closes her eyes. After several seconds, her horn stops glowing and she opens her eyes. "There you go." I turn back to the mirror. My wings now look like pegasus wings. "The effect will wear off at around 8:30 tonight, just before moonrise," she continues. "Come to me before then and I'll recast it."

"Got it. Thanks a lot." I look at Olivia. "Shall we?"

She smiles. "After you."

"Follow me," Starlight says. She walks to the door, and I carefully follow, getting accustomed to walking like this.

"Okay..." I hear Olivia say. I look back at her. "Left front... left back... right fffff–" She inhales sharply.

"You sure you want to do this?" I ask. "We can head back if it's too much."

"I'm fine. I just need to get used to it."

Can't fault her for determination. I couldn't imagine learning to walk with a fake leg _once,_ let alone a second time in a different body!


	3. Butterflies

As the train rounds a corner of the mountains, the city of Canterlot comes into view. It definitely looks like a place the rulers of a country would live.

"You think the Princesses can take their rooms with them if they go on a trip?" Olivia asks.

The castle looks a _little_ like the one on Mooni, but not _every_ castle built like that needs to act the same way... "I'll bet they can _teleport_ the rooms to their destination," I say sarcastically. I _am_ curious about why the city was built on the side of a mountain. Was it to make it tougher for others to invade? I guess it would've deterred earth ponies and unicorns, but pegasi can just fly in.

The train goes through another tunnel, then pulls into the station. Several ponies are walking around the area.

I look at Olivia. "Ready?"

She nods. "Ready."

The train doors open, and all three of us stand up.

"You two gonna be okay by yourselves?" Starlight asks. We walk toward the nearest door.

"Yeah, we'll be fine," Olivia says.

Starlight smiles. "Alright. Have fun."

We step outside and look around. Like Ponyville, most of the buildings look like they would've been built in the 17th century in our world, but it feels more like a town instead of a village. Which makes this castle look less out-of-place than Twilight's, although hers is a _lot_ more massive. Stunning, but _way_ too big for just her and her friends.

I look behind me. "Hey, Starlight," I ask. "Where are Twilight and the others?"

"They should be at the main stage. Follow the black and white arrows."

"Thanks." We set off in that direction. The top half of each arrow is black, while the bottom half is white.

"Why are the arrows colored that way?" Olivia asks.

"No idea. Maybe it's so they're visible at all times."

Music starts playing over the PA system. It sounds... very familiar...

"Is that... 'We Got the Beat'?" Olivia asks.

It... kinda _sounds_ like 'We Got the Beat'. The drum line is the same, but the bass part is now synth.

 _See the ponies trottin' down the street_

Yeah, that's the song.

 _Equestria's where they wanna meet_

Olivia sighs. "Of _course_ it's a pony version..."

"It sounds like a pop cover," I say.

"It actually reminds me of Cheese's parodies." She gasps. "You think pony Cheese is a singer, too?!" she says excitedly.

I look around. "Maybe." There are a _lot_ of ponies here, both on the ground and in the air. I wonder if there are any no-fly zones for pegasi.

One pony catches my attention. Orange coat, brown mane and tail, wearing a yellow shirt – which already stands out, since nopony else is wearing anything. I... _think_ that might be...

"Why don't you go ask him?" I point in the pony's direction with my hoof.

"Huh?" She looks in that direction. "Is... Is that..."

"I think it is."

"O... M..."

"Uh," I interrupt, "can you –"

She lets out her fangirl squeal before I can finish my sentence. She runs over to him as quickly as her 3.5 legs will let her, and I follow.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe I'm _finally_ meeting you! I _love_ your music!"

"Way to play it cool, fangirl," I whisper.

"Um..." Cheese nervously chuckles. "Y-you might be mistaking me for somepony else."

"You... You _are_ Cheese Sandwich, right? The guy who does song parodies and has mad accordion skills?"

"Well, I _do_ dabble in the accordion on occasion, but my passion is party planning."

"Pa... Party... planning?" I can't tell if she's more surprised or disappointed.

"Yeah. Usually everypony who recognizes me knows that. I'm no professional singer."

Olivia doesn't respond. I look at her. She has a blank look on her face.

I look back to Cheese. "Sorry for the confusion," I say. "She's a _huge_ fan of someone similar to you."

"It's no problem," he says. "Happens to everyone."

I tap Olivia on the... Well, it would be the shoulder on a human. Don't know what the equine equivalent is. "Let's go, Liv."

"Uh... Right..." We turn around. "That's... not how I expected my first interaction with Cheese to go. Didn't you say pony Cheese was just like human Cheese?"

"I said he _might_ be." We continue our trek toward the main stage. "With how different Twilight and Sci-Twi are, it's best to assume the same for everyone."

She sighs. "At least I'll be able to see the singer in concert in a few months. Is... Is it too late to upgrade to the VIP package?"

"All the aisle seats in the VIP section were sold out. Besides, I don't get a $650 check every month on top of what I make at Taco Haven."

She chuckles. "Do you _want_ a monthly $650 check?"

"Not if I have to disguise myself as a princess."

"Aw... You'd look so cute, though!"

"I'm _not_ dressing up as a girl. I'm not into that sort of thing." It was ridiculous enough when the girls persuaded me to let them put makeup on me.

Somepony screams. We look in that direction. We're at the main stage, and the pony versions of our friends are standing next to it, with Pinkie sitting on Twilight. Pinkie leaps back to the others and Applejack helps Twilight to her hooves. We start to walk over to them.

 _It's time to show 'em what you've got_

Great... "Even _here_ , they do this..." Spontaneously breaking into song started shortly after I became friends with the magic girls, and it got old very fast. Their pony counterparts don't seem much different.

"I wonder if they rehearse these songs," Olivia says.

"How about we wait until they're done?"

"Good idea."

We turn around and walk away.

"So... What should we do in the meantime?"

"Well... I guess we can walk around and check out the other festivities."

* * *

For the next 10 minutes or so, we walk around the festival. Nothing really caught our attention, and since Starlight didn't give us any money – not that we'd have anywhere to put it – we can't participate in any of the 'fun' stuff.

"So many happy ponies..." Olivia says.

"Yeah, and apparently they're from all across Equestria."

 _...the Princess of Friendship_

Still singing, Twilight flies past us.

I sigh. "I mean, I could understand putting on a musical at an event like this, but not turning the entire _event_ into a musical..."

"I'm pretty sure an amusement park did something like that once. Or maybe that was just a play..."

"I remember that. Although it was restricted to the area near the stage."

Suddenly, we hear an explosion. We hurry over to the main stage, where Twilight and the stage are covered in... Is that frosting?

"Oopsie!" I hear Pinkie yell. "Guess my easy bake confetti cake cannon needs a _little_ bit more fine tuning!" I look up. There's a huge cannon next to the stage, and Pinkie is peeking out of the opening.

I chuckle. "Even in Equestria, Pinkie goes over-the-top on almost everything."

"Songbird Serenade? Is it really her?"

Songbird... As in...

"It is! It is!"

I look to my right. A pony with a black shirt, a pink bow, and half-black half-blonde hair covering their eyes walks through the crowd, two bodyguard ponies on either side. A look like that can _only_ belong to Songbird Serenade... or her younger doppelgänger.

"Hiya," she says. "I'm lookin' for the pony in charge?" She instantly strikes a few poses as somepony snaps several pictures. "I need to set up for my sound check."

Olivia gasps. "Songbird Serenade!" she excitedly whispers. Songbird is her favorite pop singer, and although she has every album from Songbird, she's not as obsessed as she is with Cheese.

"Songbird Serenade!" Twilight walks out from the frosting pile. "Um... I was just going to check on you. I'm Princess Twilight, and sorry about the mess. I'm usually not so..." She wipes off some of the frosting and flicks it away, landing on Songbird's shirt.

Whoops.

"Caked in cake?" Songbird took it pretty well.

Twilight nervously laughs. The bodyguards say something to each other, then the one on my right brushes the frosting off Songbird's shirt.

"Wow..." Olivia says to me. "I got to meet Cheese – sorta – _and_ Songbird!" She sounds super excited.

A rumble of thunder interrupts the meeting. Everypony looks in its direction. A series of black clouds are moving toward the city.

"Storm clouds?!" Twilight exclaims. "I ordered perfect weather!"

"I'm gonna take cover," Olivia says to me. "If this prosthesis is like my other one, I don't want it to get wet when exposed like this."

"Should I come with?" I ask.

"You don't have to. Unless you're afraid of getting your fur wet."

"Alright. Stay dry."

"I'll try." She walks over to one of the shops.

"Uh... I don't think those are storm clouds," Rainbow says. They... _do_ look rather ominous.

A dark purple blimp... or airship, I guess... emerges from the clouds.

"Ooh!" Pinkie yells. "I bet those are clowns I ordered!"

Clowns!? "Where did you get your clowns, pennyparty dot com?!"

The ship lowers, knocking over a few spires; one of which falls onto a balloon display.

"...Or definitely _not_ the clowns I ordered."

"Really?" I sarcastically respond. "Are you sure destroying Canterlot property wasn't on the advertisement?!"

"Of course! My parties _never_ cause property damage!"

 _This_ Pinkie doesn't get sarcasm either...

The ship lands, and the entrance ramp is lowered. It lands on a balloon animal.

"Brian! _No!"_

Who the hell names their _balloon animal?!_

Someone walks down the ramp carrying a box. There's a symbol on the box, and it... kinda looks like the one from one of those first-person shooter games... I think. I never actually played those for more than a minute. They set it down at the bottom. They sorta resemble a porcupine, except with a mohawk. Something comes out of the top of the box, making it look like a phonograph. The porcupine thing is holding a microphone.

He clears his throat. "Ponies of Equestria..."

"I guess he doesn't mean me," I quietly say with sarcasm.

"...we come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the almighty... Storm King!" A few banners drop from the ship. Two have the symbol from the box, while the other has a... lion-looking creature on it with the same symbol on its armor.

I sigh. I'm beginning to wonder if danger follows us everywhere or we happen to go where the danger is.

"And now, to deliver the evil, _evil_ message, put your hooves together for Commander Tempest!"

A dark purple pony stands at the top of the ramp. They're wearing a darker jacket and their mane is a red mohawk. They also have a... broken horn?

"Is that a unicorn?" Twilight asks.

"I think so," Spike says, "but what happened to her horn?"

"I didn't know unicorns could survive without one," I say. To be fair, _humans_ can survive without a _lot_ of things.

The other three Princess land in front of us.

"Tempest, is it?" Princess Celestia says. "How may we help you?"

"Oh, I'm _so_ glad you asked. How 'bout we start with your complete and total surrender?"

Yeah, knew something like _that_ would happen.

"Hi there." Twilight walks to the side of the other Princesses. "Princess of Friendship. Not exactly sure what's going on, but I know we can talk things out."

"Oh, goody. All four Princesses." Tempest walks down the ramp. "Here's the deal, ladies. I need your magic. Give it up nicely, please, or we make it difficult... for everyone!"

Bad guys always seem to use the 'easy way or hard way' suggestion.

"And _why_ should we cower before you?" Princess Luna says. "There's _one_ of you and _hundreds_ of us!"

The people or ponies they're threatening will _never_ take the easy way.

"I was hoping you'd choose... _difficult."_ Two creatures appear behind her and two other ships fly in.

I need to get to Olivia. I look at the nearest tent. She's not there. Wouldn't she pick the one that's closest to me?

A bunch of creatures that look like the Storm King drop from the ships, sending everypony into a panic.

Well, no better time to learn how to run. I run to the tent I thought Olivia was in.

"Olivia? You in here?" No response. I run to the right, quickly checking each tent. "Olivia? Liv?" No response from any of them. "Where the hell _is_ she?!" I hurry back to the tent I started at, then check the other tents. She's still nowhere to be found. Maybe she went somewhere else?

"Over here, y'all!" Applejack yells, likely not to me.

I sigh. I _hope_ she's safe. The Element bearers probably know this place better than I do, so following them might be best. I run after them, a couple soldiers behind us.

As we approach one of the towers, two more block our path. At least I get a chance to catch my breath. Twilight fires a blast of magic at one, which it deflects with its shield. The blast hits the ground in front of her.

Suddenly, the ground breaks away.

Crap! Uh... Okay... Maybe I can fly back up. Um... Damn wings... How do they work... The girls' screams aren't helping. Do I just –

I land in the water. Even worse! I can't even swim as a _human!_ The most I can do is a doggy paddle, but with the strong current, it won't be any help. Okay, try to remain calm. I manage to get my head above the water and take a deep breath. I try to keep my head up, but with all the running I did, I don't have a lot of energy left, and I go back under. I just have to hope I can keep my breath held long enough to make it to safety. Easier said than done, as after only about 5 seconds, my lungs are burning. I push myself up with my front hooves, only giving me enough time to exhale. Drowning was _not_ on my to-do list!

I start falling again while partially submerged. Oh good! A waterfall! This is officially the worst day _ever!_


	4. Alive

After not getting killed by a fast-moving current and a very tall waterfall, it's nice to be in a calm part of a river. My paddle is more effective when the water's moving slowly.

"Well... I think that's the second time I've cheated death."

"Uh... Not to be rude, but who are you and why did ya follow us?" Applejack asks.

Twilight looks at me. "Cloudflare?"

"Hi, Twilight," I say.

"It's, uh... It's good to see you made it to Equestria."

"Yeah... Was hoping to meet under less dire circumstances, though..."

"Wait... Cloudflare?" Applejack says. "As in, Cloudflare from Canterlot High School?"

"Yes, that one. And please, call me Flare. I'd love to talk more, but can we get out of the water first?"

Twilight looks around. "There's a shoreline up ahead."

I spot it, then carefully paddle to the left side of the river. All of us get there safely.

I try standing up, but I quickly lose my balance and collapse onto the sand. "Oh, right... Two legs bad, four legs good." I get onto all fours.

"Everypony okay?" AJ asks. She walks over to where the others – except Twilight – are standing, under an knocked-down tree.

"I think my bottom's on backward," Rarity says in a daze.

"We just got our cupcakes handed to us by the worst party crasher ever!" Pinkie says.

"We gotta go back there and fight!" Rainbow says.

Olivia! "I'm with Rainbow," I say. "I need to make sure my girlfriend is okay."

"You saw the size of those goons!" Spike says. "You seriously wanna go back?"

"My _girlfriend_ is in _trouble!"_

"So is everypony else!"

"You don't know her like I do!"

"Instead of arguin'," AJ interrupts, "we should figure out what to do next. We can't hide here forever." She looks at me. "And let's be honest, we _can't_ go back. Look at what they did to the Princesses. We gotta keep them from Twilight."

"What did they do to the Princesses?" I ask.

"Tempest turned 'em to stone."

To... stone? "That's... something you can do in this world?" Sunset never mentioned anything about that.

"The Queen..."

Huh?

"Yeah! The Queen!" Pinkie says. "Uh... what queen?"

"Tempest is a queen?" I ask. "Well, she _does_ have an army."

"Celestia told Luna to find the Queen of the... Hippos... Luna can't, so _I_ have to!"

"Uh... hippos? Seriously?" What Rainbow said.

"I've heard they're surprisingly graceful for their size!" Pinkie says. "But they're always hungry."

"Hungry?" Spike says.

"Hippos?" AJ says.

"Maybe they'll starve Tempest's army out of Canterlot by eating all their food," I say.

"They're somewhere south," Twilight says, "past the Badlands."

Badlands, huh? I'd make a reference to Grease Face, but that would probably sail right over their heads.

"That means we'll have to..." Fluttershy says, "leave Equestria..." But I just got here!

"I'm not even packed!" Rarity says.

"I understand you're scared," Twilight says, "and nopony else has to go, but I _have_ to find this queen. She might be our only hope."

So... I don't think I'll be able to walk back to Canterlot from here without getting hopelessly lost, and I have no idea how to fly. Even if I got there, I'd be either captured or turned away from entering.

"Well, you're not getting _all_ the glory," Rainbow says. "We're in this together."

"We got your back," AJ says.

"Indeedy!" Pinkie says.

"I am ready to save Equestria!" Rarity says.

"Yay," Fluttershy quietly says.

"We're all behind you, Twilight," Spike says.

Don't really have much of a choice. "I guess I can try to help out however I can."

"Let's go find this hippo!" Pinkie says as she bounces off in one direction.

"Uh... South?" Spike says, pointing to his left.

Pinkie happily bounces that way and we follow. She's almost _exactly_ like the Pinkie in my world. "Anypony up for a game of 'I Spy'?"

There's a time and place for everything, and this isn't either of those.

"No, really! Come on!"

"Uh... H-how about we play 'Learn About the New Guy' first?" I suggest.

"That's a better idea," Rainbow says. "I've been wondering about you this entire time."

"This is Cloudflare," Twilight says. "He's visiting from CHS."

"Call me Flare," I say.

"Twilight's told us a bit about you," AJ says.

"Flare, huh?" Rainbow says. "I thought you were coming here with someone else."

"I did. I brought my girlfriend, Olivia Frost, with me. She hid in one of the tents when the clouds rolled in, and once those goons showed up, I tried to find her and make sure she was safe. I called to her in each tent, but she didn't respond." I look at AJ. "I followed all of you because I wanted to get somewhere safe, and you know Canterlot better than I do."

"Sorry you two got wrapped up in all this," Twilight says.

I sigh. "I'm _really_ worried about her. She was miserable after Sunset Shimmer ruined her life, and she broke down when Juniper Montage trapped all of us in her mirror and after she was corrupted by Equestrian magic. The only thing that kept her from total despair was she had me to lean on. I don't think she can handle something like this, and she might do something to make the situation worse."

"It sounds like you two love each other a lot," Rarity says.

Huh... "It... does..." How did I not notice? "I actually haven't told her because I wasn't sure if she loves me back yet." I'm such an idiot... I sigh. "I guess guys _are_ terrible at picking up this stuff..."

"Well, look on the bright side," Pinkie says. "Once we find the Hippo Queen and save everypony, you can confess your undying love to Olivia!"

"Don't worry," Twilight says. "We _will_ save her."

I don't doubt we will. I'm more concerned about her _now_. Please be okay...

"In the meantime, let's play 'I Spy' to lift your spirits!" Pinkie says. "I spy with my little eye something that is orange and brown. No takers? It's you, Applejack!" She giggles. What did I get myself into...

* * *

Walking for hours while listening to round after round after round of 'I Spy' has taught me a few things.

One: Pony Pinkie Pie is _way_ more energetic than human Pinkie Pie, probably because she doesn't have a drumset to let off all that extra energy.

Two: There's only so much Pinkie Pie cheerfulness one can take before they want to bury their head in the ground.

And three: Deserts are even hotter when you're a creature with a full coat of fur.

"There's sand in my... everything..." Pinkie pants. "Heh... Saving... Equestria..." She laughs in a 'losing her mind' kind of way. "Oh! Look!" She picks up a... What is that, a... vulture skull? "Maybe this guy knows which way to go! What's that, friend? We're lost?" She laughs again, coughs, and collapses to the ground.

At least she stopped her game of what I call 'What's All Around Us?'.

"We could be going in... circles!" Spike pants. "Endless... sand..."

"Maybe we'll run into... a snow biome... at the edge of this desert," I pant. "It can happen in Minecraft... so why couldn't it happen... in a world... where everything... everything's... magic?" I 'point' my right forehoof to the sky. "Just push a bunch of snow clouds... to this area... and let loose! That's... pretty much what happened to one of _my_ deserts." I walk in front of Rainbow and look at her. _"There's_ an idea for the next update! Heat exhaustion! Spend too long in a desert, start losing health unless you drink water! That's not how fending off heat exhaustion works, but neither does placing a torch underwater to take a deep enough breath to instantly refill your lungs." I walk to her side and put a foreleg on the back of her neck. "But hey, this is a world with magic, talking ponies! _Anything's possible!"_ I laugh at the absurdity of that idea.

"What... in the _hay_ are you babbling about?" Rainbow says, lifting my leg off of her.

I look down. There are a series of rocks in the sand marking a path. "Just follow this road, and we'll get to the tundra in _no time!"_

"A road?" Twilight says. "Where there's a road, there's a..." She lets out a gasp.

The rest of us catch up to her. In the distance is... a ship that's been converted into a town?

"Ooh! A city!" Pinkie yells. "We are doing it, you guys!"

"You know what they say," Rarity says. "Where there's a city, there's a spa!"

I'm... not convinced. "Are we sure it's not a mirage?" I ask. "We _have_ been in this desert for a long time."

"As long as it has a spa, I don't care _what_ it is!"

"You have a better idea, Mr. Desert Snow?" Rainbow asks.

I sigh. I'll save my 'I told you so's for when I'm right.


	5. Cheap Thrills

I'll admit to being wrong. This place _is_ real. And real _shady._ At every other corner, there are bird-like creatures in cages and shops with various horns for sale, and the residents don't seem like the friendly type.

"Hey!" one of the vendors says. "You with the horn. You selling?"

At least there aren't any noses for sale. That would be a little _too_ creepy. Maybe they're on the black market. Then again, the entire _town_ feels like a black market.

We walk up to a... turtle-looking creature? It's loading a huge barrel into its wagon cart.

"Hi there!" Twilight says. It tosses the barrel into the cart, causing all three barrels on the cart to roll out. "Oh! I'm sorry. Here. Lemme help you with that." She grabs the barrels with her magic and stacks them on the cart.

"Hey! No magic around my merchandise!" the creature yells.

Guess some don't want to be helped. We run away from him. Maybe he thinks magic will somehow contaminate the product.

"Okay," Twilight says to us, "we just gotta stick together. Be careful who you talk to, and try to blend in."

"Can I have your attention please?!" Yeah, _just_ like that, Pinkie! "Can anypony take us to the Queen of the Hippos?!" I'm not a hippo expert, but I'm fairly certain they don't live so close to a desert.

"You want somethin'," one creature says, "you gotta give somethin'."

Pinkie jumps up to him and he catches her. "Well, how about a big warm hug from a grateful pony friend?" I think it needs to be something tangible. The creature drops her. "How about this comb that I've never used?" she says to another. You've never used it, but there are pink hairs in it. I guess she's not wrong. If she's like the human Pinkie, she stores almost everything in her hair. "A picture of my sister Maud?" You mean Maud _and_ her pet. "This breath mint? Seriously, buddy. Help me, help you."

I wonder if Pinkie understands the definition of 'blending in'.

"Pinkie, you can't just take off!" Twilight says. "And you don't need to announce to every–"

"Relax, Twilight! I _totally_ got this!"

Several creatures approach us.

"How much for the giant gecko?"

"Who you callin' a gecko?!" Spike says.

"Uh... Spike isn't for sale," Twilight says.

"I want that fancy purple hair! I'll give ya two storm bucks for it!"

" _Two_ storm bucks?!" Rarity yells. "It's worth _more_ than that!" Is that _really_ what you're worried about?

"Gimme that pink one!"

"I'll take the blue one!"

"No! _I_ want the blue one!"

"I'll take the orange one's wings! I'm running low on quills!"

"I want all eight for my collection!"

This would've been the perfect time to use my siren power...

Someone jumps in front of us. "Back up, everyone! Back it up!" From behind, he kinda looks like a cat. "Y'all in some serious danger! Now you didn't touch any of them, did you? Just look at all those colors! You think that's natural?" All _these_ colors? What about all _your_ colors? I mean, yeah, they're pretty much different shades of blue, but... "They're infected with pastelis coloritis."

Everyone gasps.

"Now you listen here, fella..." AJ says.

"Yeah, that's right!" I interrupt. I see what this guy's trying to do, so I might as well help him out. "We're _highly_ contagious!" I fake sneeze.

"Don't worry, don't worry, as long as you're not covered in purple splotches..." He dips his tail in something purple on the ground and flings it on the creature to his right. "...you'll be fine." He leaps over to the creature. "Uh-oh."

"Oh no! What do I do?!"

"Enjoy your last moments and don't touch anyone! Because parts _will_ fall off..."

That's enough to send everyone scattering.

"Well, all right."

Rainbow flies over to him. "You... are... awesome!"

"And quite charming," Rarity giggles.

"Huh." Spike seems annoyed at Rarity's reaction.

"Capper's the name. Charming's my game." I think that charm only worked on Rarity. "So... to the Hippos, then?" He leads the way.

"Wait, there _are_ hippos here?" Guess this world is a lot more different than I expected.

Pinkie eagerly hops after him, but Twilight cuts her off. "I don't know if we should trust him."

"We could definitely use a friend out here!"

"If it'll get us to the Hippo Queen and save Liv faster," I say, "I'm all for it."

Capper cuts in. "You know what? Little Cotton Candy Hair is right. And, if I do say so myself..."

 _This town is not a nice place_

Why?! "No!" I interrupt. "No singing! Can you just explain things in a _normal_ speaking voice?!"

"What's wrong with singing?" Pinkie says. "Singing's fun!"

"I _already_ have to put up with the occasional breaking-into-song back home. I don't want _this_ to turn into another high school musical!"

"Relax, orange boy," Capper says. "I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

Uh... "Orange boy?" Who does he think I am, Jerem?

"Just let him sing," AJ whispers.

I sigh. "Fine... One song."

"That's a good pony. Now, where was I?" He clears his throat, then restarts his song.

Throughout the song, he explains that, with this town being as shady as it is, we need someone who knows their way around to keep us safe. And since he was so nice to get us out of that jam, he's 'the friend we need'. Which, of course, he could've just told us _normally_ instead of doing a 3-minute musical number!

He leads us throughout town – where, of course, other residents sing along on occasion – and eventually into a house.

"Welcome, my little ponies, to my little manor."

We look inside. There's a lot of stuff everywhere.

"Ooh! A sort of a roco-hobo-Bohemian hodgepodge," Rarity says.

Looks like he just put his stuff in the first open spot he saw.

"Apologies for the state of my litter box. I wasn't expecting guests."

"Ooh! So many fun breakables!" Pinkie says.

"Uh... Are you insured?" I ask Capper.

He chuckles. "You are such a worrywart. By the way, if you break anything, you're paying for it. Now, y'all sure y'all want the Hippos?"

"Yessirree!" Pinkie says. "The _Queen_ of the Hippos!"

"Not like the Queen of the Lions, or Tigers, or Bears?" Wait for it...

"Oh my!" Thank you, Fluttershy.

I... get the feeling Princess Celestia was trying to say something else. I _still_ don't get how hippos are supposed to help us with our problem. Hell, _all three_ of those other things would do a better job!

"Oh, pardon my rudeness! Y'all know _so_ much about me, and I haven't asked about any of _you!"_

"Let's start with Flare!" Rainbow says. I look at her. "All we know about you is your name, where you're from, and what little Twilight has told us."

"What's it like over there?" Pinkie asks. "Does that Pinkie have a party cannon, too? Is the –"

"Okay, okay!" I interrupt. "While we have some downtime, I might as well." I walk over to the group. "So... Where to start..."

"How 'bout where you're from?" AJ says.

"Well, I'm actually from Canterlot City in another world. Over there, everyone walks on two legs, has hands kinda like Spike's claws, and their faces are quite a bit flatter than ponies'. If a pony goes to that world, they turn into what we call a human, and when a human comes here, they become a pony."

"Fascinating..." Capper says. "Do go on."

"In that world, magic doesn't exist. Well, until recently. A former student of the princess – named Sunset Shimmer – escaped to that world a few years ago, and she returned to this one to steal a magic artifact. Twilight – the purple pony – followed her and tried to get the object back. Sunset put it on over there and turned into a demon. She tried to hypnotize the students at the school to lead them back to this world to take over. Twilight used the magic in the object, shared it with her new friends – human versions of these five – to defeat Sunset. Ever since, we've had magic in that world. Sunset showed remorse for her actions, and these girls' human counterparts agreed to befriend her."

"Didn't Sunset make your life miserable?" AJ asks.

"She did. There's this other girl named Olivia Frost." Olivia... I sigh. "She's missing the bottom half of her right leg, and she wears a prosthetic limb. She covers it up with long pants or long socks to keep it hidden, but somehow Sunset found out. She told the school, and around half the students started making fun of Olivia. This continued for a year before she met me. The students who _weren't_ bullying her were too afraid to befriend her and get bullied themselves, but I wasn't worried about that. We kept our friendship secret for about six months, and we started dating after three. Then Sunset discovered our relationship, blabbed to everyone, and ruined _my_ school life as well. My other friends abandoned me, the two of us broke up, and she eventually moved away. The next couple months were a living hell for me until I met the sirens."

"Sirens?" Capper asks. "Why would meeting sirens make things better?"

"Not woo-woo-woo sirens. Over a thousand years ago, there were three dragon-mermaid-horse creatures who would use their singing to get ponies to argue with each other, then feed on that negativity. A group of ponies from that time were able to banish the sirens to another world – my world. They took the forms of three teenage girls and were able to maintain those forms for centuries using the same tactics as in this world, but it wasn't enough for them to take over. Then they saw the magic spiral that formed when Twilight and her friends defeated Sunset, and they showed up at our school a couple months later. There was a music showcase event being held one weekend, and the sirens used their singing to change the event to a competition and get the school riled up. It didn't affect Twilight's friends because somehow their magic protected them, and I wasn't affected because I hated the school. The sirens noticed this and wrote me a note saying to meet them after school. I did, and when I told them about my history at the school, they wanted me to join them. They said they were going to make the school adore them, including Sunset. The idea of getting revenge on her is why I agreed."

"Revenge can be a powerful motive," Fluttershy says.

"Yeah. Odd thing about that. Your human counterpart seems to like games where you take revenge on someone."

"Really?" she says, surprised.

"Why would _that_ Fluttershy like revenge?" Rainbow asks. " _Our_ Fluttershy wouldn't even _think_ of such a thing!"

"No idea. But every human seems to be slightly different from their pony counterpart, at least from what I've seen with the two Twilights." And Cheese Sandwich. "Anyway, it turns out the sirens were just using me. They found they could absorb my negativity by putting their hands on my shoulders. Once the magic girls defeated the sirens, I realized what a fool I'd been. Instead of getting back at everyone, I made things even worse for myself. With Sunset's help, I was able to calm them down and make things better. I then became friends with those girls and made up with Sunset."

"So... you just... forgave Sunset after everything she put you through?" Capper asks, standing up.

"I saw with my own eyes how she'd changed. I was convinced she put her old self behind her."

Rarity levitates a needle and thread spool over to Capper and grabs his shirt sleeve in her magic. "Whoa, hey, hold up now." She sews up the rip in his sleeve. "Whoa..."

"Here you go," she says, placing two gold buttons – or whatever those are – on the collar. "I do apologize. If we were back home, I could've done something truly fabulous."

"Okay... What's the catch?"

"Nothing. After all that you've done for us, consider it a thank-you." This Rarity is just as generous as the Rarity back home.

"Oh. Uh, don't thank me. Really."

Rarity looks at me. "My apologies for interrupting you, Cloudflare. Please continue."

"Guys!" Twilight runs over to the table and places a map down. "We've been looking for the wrong queen! We don't need the Queen of the Hippos! We need the Queen of the Hippo _griffs!_ Part pony, part eagle!" She points to the top of the map.

"Oh!" Capper says. "Oh, the Hippo _griffs!"_

"I _knew_ there was more to it than just hippos," I say.

"Now, the trouble with that is..." Capper says, "no one knows... where they are."

"Says here they're on the top of Mount Aris," Twilight says with a glare.

"You mean the mountain right outside the window?" Pinkie says, pointing to the window. The top of a mountain is visible in the distance. Well, that proves this planet is round. I never thought it _wasn't,_ but when I heard about the manual raising and lowering of the sun and moon, I spent a long time trying to figure out what a planet would have to look like to allow such a thing before settling on 'It's magic, who gives a crap?'.

"Objects in windows may be less mountainous than they appear," Capper says with a nervous laugh. The horizon definitely helps with that.

Twilight folds the map. "Let's go, everypony." She walks toward the door.

"Wait!" Capper runs in front of the door. "You can't – you can't make it by y'allselves! You need an airship! And lucky for you, I can get you a ride."

"I _think_ we can get there on our own." She shoves him out of the way and opens the door.

"Heeeeeere's _Verko!"_

So many ways to introduce yourself, and you choose the one that makes you sound like a psychopathic pig creature...

"These ponies better shoot rainbow lasers out their eyes if they're gonna settle your debt! Brought the big cage." He motions to a cage behind him on a cart driven by... Is that Ludo? "Let's load 'em up!"

He... He was...

"You were going to _sell us?!"_ What Rarity said.

"I _knew_ it!" Twilight says. "We _gotta_ get outta here!"

Someone outside chuckles. She walks into view.

"Silly little ponies..." Well, poo...

"Tempest!"

"Trusting strangers? Big mistake." She and her porcupine partner walk inside. "Big..."

"Huge!" her partner says.

"Hoo-hoo!" Okay, Victor or whatever his name is has her distracted.

"Let's go," Twilight whispers. We climb onto the table under the window. "Grab on when the next blade passes."

I peer out the window. Oh, I guess this is a windmill. Man, what I wouldn't give to be able to fly right now...

The blade approaches. I hope this works. All of us jump for it. Somehow, I'm able to use the elbow knees of my forelegs to hang on. Everypony else made it, except Rainbow and Twilight who are flying.

New problem. This isn't slowing down, and it's gonna become impossible to hang on once it reaches the top.

Just as it nears the top, it stops. Rainbow and Twilight try pushing it, but it won't budge. I still don't see how this was a good idea. Even if all of us had hands, we'd slide off if this goes any further.

Hang on... I _think_ I can figure out how to fly. If it's as easy as when I siren up...

I try moving the wings in the same way and look back. Good, they _are_ moving. Just repeat that motion... After a few seconds, I feel the lower half of my body moving upward. I think I've got it. I close my eyes and let go. No air rushing around me. I open my eyes. Alright, then! I _can_ fly!

Just as I move to the front of the windmill, it starts spinning very fast. You know that feeling when your friends are in trouble and you're powerless to do anything about it? Yeah, it's not pleasant. I guess it's a _little_ easier to hang on when it's going like this, but how are Twilight and Rainbow holding on? Are pony hooves like the Human Spider's fingers? I look closely at my forehooves. I don't _see_ anything out of the ordinary.

Suddenly, there's a thud. I look up. The windmill blades are gone! I look to the right. With the girls and Spike still holding on, the blades are still spinning and they're bouncing off of the ground, rolling into town. I fly after them at normal speed. I don't want to overdo it so soon.

As it speeds away, I ascend to try getting a better view. Holy crap, this is high up... It's fine. I can fly. There's no danger. I can see small patches of color on the brown blades. At least they're still visible from here. They get flung off and land on a makeshift balcony, where they immediately start running. The windmill continues rolling and starts taking out the balcony. They jump onto another set of boards as the windmill gets closer. As soon as it catches up to them, they leap into a building and out of my line of sight.

Okay... What might they be looking for... I scan the sky for something in that direction. There's an airship in the distance. That's probably where they're headed. I start flying over to it. It'll probably take off before I get there, so I should fly slightly ahead of where it's docked.

Wow... This is more tiring than it looked. I'm not out of breath, but my wings are starting to ache. I've never flown non-stop for this long before.

The ship begins moving. A rope gets laid out between the stern and the dock, and a few of my friends start walking on it. Now I'm _really_ glad I started flying. There's _no way_ I'd do any tightrope walking in this body! Pinkie bounces onto the rope... not only throwing caution to the wind, but practically shooting it out of a cannon! Predictably, that forces the rope downward, dragging Rainbow – who's holding the loose end between her teeth – with it. Rarity, AJ, and Spike are able to hang on, but Pinkie doesn't even _try_ to grab the rope, causing her to drop fast. Twilight races down to catch her.

Almost at the ship... and my wings feel like they're on fire. Just a little more... Come on...

Made it! I land on the stern, _finally_ giving my wings a rest.

Twilight and Pinkie make it, too. Twilight throws Pinkie onto the ship, then she lands.

"Best... escape plan... _EVER!"_ Pinkie yells, already over nearly leaving a pink mess on the rocks below.

 _"WHAT?!"_

Something grabs all three of us and pulls us in. Somepony tied the rope into a lasso and yanked us out of the open.

"Shh!" Spike whispers. He looks up. There are a couple shadowy figures in front of the crates on-board.

"Did you hear something?"

The other makes a squawking noise.

"Eh, probably just the rats. If we find 'em... we'll eat 'em."

"Rats?" Rarity whispers.

"Better than whatever those things are," I whisper back.

"Uh... Flare? What happened to your wings?" Rainbow asks.

"Huh?" I look back. Instead of pegasus wings, they now look like siren wings. I sigh. "Guess the spell wore off..."

"What spell?" Twilight asks.

"I'll explain everything later, when we don't have to risk getting caught."

I sigh. I got played _again..._ The sirens were just gonna kick me out of the group, but that guy wanted to _sell_ us...

* * *

I haven't moved since AJ pulled us into the cabin. I've been too busy thinking about Olivia. I'm not worried about what they might be doing to her, but rather how she's handling it. I wasn't exaggerating when I said she might do something to worsen her situation. I have no doubt Juniper Montage would've ended up in the hospital if I wasn't there to calm Liv down. Liv isn't prone to bursts of anger, but everybody has a breaking point. Even if she _doesn't_ lash out, I'm sure this is wearing her down emotionally. I doubt she'll be in the mood to celebrate after we save everypony. She might even go back to sheltering herself from the outside world. I _really_ hope that doesn't happen.

I sigh. "Just hold on a little longer, Liv," I whisper.

"Last time we trusted somepony," Twilight says, "he tried to sell us!"

"Can't _possibly_ happen a _second_ time," I mutter.

Suddenly, the cabin gets a lot brighter.

"Hey guys! Come check this out!"

Oh goody. We've been discovered.

"Looks like a pack of stowaways."

"What are we s'posed to do with 'em?"

Their bird squawks.

"I think we tie 'em up!"

I look up. Oh, they're _all_ bird-looking creatures. Three are green, one is pink. One of them is wearing an eyepatch.

"We clip their wings!"

Yeah, not sure how you're gonna clip _these_ wings. There's nothing to clip!

"Nah. We scar 'em... emotionally!"

I doubt I could be more emotionally scarred than a certain somepony back in Canterlot right now.

"Wai-wai-wai-wait. What say the book, Captain Celaeno?"

Another bird walks over. This one is white with a light green... um... What _are_ those things?

"Storm King's rule book says..." She's holding a book with the Storm King's insignia on the cover. Get away from one group of Storm King cohorts, run into another... "Throw them overboard."

Yup. That makes sense. I guess word about the most wanted ponies in the world didn't reach everyone in the king's network.

"Or..." I suggest, "we could surrender to Tempest?" The others glare at me. "I'm not gonna reunite with Olivia at the bottom of the sea!"

They lean down, ready to grab us. So much for my suggestion...

A whistle blows.

"Alright! That's lunch!"

Uh... what?


	6. Rainbow

**A/N: In case you're not familiar with basic boat terminology for this chapter or the end of the previous one, here's a cheat sheet.**

 **bow = front, pronounced like "how"  
stern = back  
port = left, when looking forward  
starboard = right, when looking forward  
deck = top part of the ship you can walk on**

* * *

I... guess it's lunchtime... at like 9:00 at night. Is it _really_ that late? It didn't _feel_ like we were gone for that long, but the spell on my wings _did_ wear off and it's a bit dark outside. We're sitting at their lunch table with a bowl of... some type of food... in front of each of us. What _is_ this stuff...?

"Whoa whoa whoa," Rainbow says, sitting next to me. "So you were about to toss us overboard and you stopped for a lunch break?"

Twilight glares at us from the other side of the table. What? It's a valid question!

"Storm King only allows one break a day for meals," the one to Fluttershy's left says, "then it's back to hauling goods."

"So you're delivery guys?" Spike asks.

"And gals," the captain says. "These uniforms aren't exactly doing us any favors." She doesn't sound thrilled about her position.

Twilight unfolds the map. "Then can you deliver us to Mount Aris?"

"Last I checked," I say, "we're not cargo."

She shoots a quick glare at me. Fine, I'll shut up.

"Sorry," the captain says. "We do what the Storm King orders or we suffer his wrath."

"He _does_ look like a no-nonsense ruler," I say. "So... Overboard?"

"Eh, it's nothing personal," the pink one says. "Pudding?"

"There's pudding?!" Rarity says.

The pink one slides a bowl in front of Rarity and fills it with the same stuff that's in all of ours.

 _"This_ is pudding?" I stick my tongue out and try a small bit of it. "Mmm... That's an... _interesting_ flavor. Never had anything like it before." I can't really describe it.

"You weren't _always_ delivery birds, were you?" Rainbow asks. "What about _before_ the Storm King?"

"Yeah..." the captain says. "We used to be much more adventurous." She stands up, walks over to the Storm King poster on the wall behind Twilight, and moves it aside. Behind it is a... pirate flag?

"Ooh! I met that guy in the desert!" Pinkie...

"Huh... You guys used to be _pirates?"_ I ask.

"Um, we prefer the term 'swashbuckling treasure hunters'," the one next to Applejack says.

"So... pirates," Rainbow says.

The one next to Spike squawks. I'm gonna call him Squawks, since that's all he does.

"You birds have a choice to make," Rainbow says, slamming her hoof on the table. "You could let some cloven-hoofed Storm King tell you how to live your lives, or..." Rainbow pulls down the poster above AJ, then flies up to it "...you could be awesome again!"

"Rainbow Dash," Twilight says, "this really isn't a good time for a –"

Rainbow lands on the table.

 _I know the world can get you down_

"– song," Twilight finishes with a facehoof.

 _Things don't work out..._

Why... I slam my head against the table. Why... _*slam*_ Why... _*slam*_ And now I've got a headache. Maybe if I do it enough times, I'll be able to sleep through this number. As I get ready to do it again, AJ puts a hoof on my head. I look at her. She's glaring at me.

I sigh. I actually envy Olivia right now. Yeah, she's having the worst weekend in the history of weekends, but at least she's away from... _this!_

 _Ah ah ah, awesome!_

Oh, _**come on!**_

 _It's time to be so awesome!_

 _"*slam* *slam* *slam* *slam* Awesome...  
*slam* *slam* *slam* *slam* So awesome..."_

I look up. Twilight is walking away from the table. She has the right idea. I stand up and follow her.

I catch up to her before she closes the door. "Wait up!" She looks back at me. I walk through the door, then she closes it behind me.

"You _really_ don't like songs, do you?" she asks.

"No, I _do_ like songs. I'm the backup drummer for the Rainbooms, remember? It's all this 'spontaneously breaking into a song-and-dance number' garbage that's ticking me off."

"It's not _that_ bad if the time is right."

I sigh. "How do you people _do_ that, anyway?"

"Well... The words just kinda... come to us."

"I guess it's easier for some. The one time I tried it, I needed, like, five seconds to come up with something, and that was just for 15 seconds of song!" I collapse to the ground. "I'd actually _rather_ be back at Canterlot... with her..."

She puts a foreleg around the back of my neck. "We _will_ save her."

"I know we will. I _can't_ not worry, though. She's... She's the love of my life... and the longer I'm out here, the more desperate I fear I'm gonna get." I sigh again. The saying is true. You don't know what you have 'til it's gone... or being held prisoner.

Someone kicks open the door we came out of.

 _Awesome!_

Good news, everyone! The delivery crew has returned to pirating thanks to the power of song!

 _Go big, be you, so awesome!_

As has everypony else, it seems. All of them are decked out in pirate gear.

 _We used to soar through..._

I stand up and immediately make my way back to the stern. It's harder to hear them from here, but it's not _total_ silence. I guess if it'll get us to the hippogriffs quicker, they can do whatever musical numbers they want.

A minute later, the singing stops. I look across the deck. Everyone is at the bow, with the crew pulling on several ropes. I walk over to them and look at where the ropes lead. Extending from the front of the blimp part of the airship are various... I guess they're sails of some sort... of different colors. From bottom to top, they're the colors of a rainbow. That doesn't look very... pirate-y.

"You know, when I think of _well-known plunderers_ of the Seven Seas, Roy G. Biv is _number one_ on that list!" I say with extreme sarcasm.

"Who's Roy G. Biv?" Pinkie asks. "Was he as _ruthless_ as Blackbeard? Maybe he worked _with_ Blackbeard as his long-forgotten first mate!"

 _Please_ tell me that's an acronym in this world and Pinkie's just taking what I said at face value. "Just... forget I said anything."

"Awesome!" Rainbow says to the captain. "I _knew_ ya had it in you! And now, for the finishing touch!" She flies up... and up... and up some more... until she's not even visible.

"Rainboom! Rainboom! Rainboom!" Pinkie starts chanting.

"Not the place I expected to hear that chant," I say.

"Oh no no no no!" Twilight says in a panic.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"What in the hay is she thinking?!"

Rainbow starts to come into view. A couple seconds later, there's an explosion sound, followed by a burst of color and an actual rainbow trailing her as she flies around the ship.

"I... see..." It _is_ visually stunning. And... "I see why you sounded so panicked..."

Rainbow lands back on the ship. "How _awesome_ was that?!"

Everyone except Twilight and I agree with her. I'm not sure who I'm more angry at: Rainbow for sending out a rainbow beacon or everypony and everybirdie practically _applauding_ her for doing it.

I storm over to her. "What the _hell_ was that?!" I demand.

Rainbow chuckles. "I know. You're in awe. Everypony gets a little starstruck when they see their first sonic rainboom!"

"We are trying to stay _away_ from Tempest! Not signal our exact location!"

"Calm down, Flare! I'm just having a little fun!"

"Fun?!" Geez, she's more oblivious than Pinkie! _"Fun_ is playing dress-up and singing motivational songs. Doing a _sonic rainboom_ when the Storm King's goons are trying to capture us and imprison Twilight in stone... Well, I've gotta say that's one of the _stupidest_ things I've ever seen!"

"Dude, chillax!"

"Chillax? _Chillax?!"_

"Yeah! You're overreacting!"

"Overreacting?!" I chuckle. "No, no. If I was overreacting..." I try to do my best pirate impression. "I'd be makin' ye walk the plank, matey!" I let out a heavy sigh. "You're even worse than your human counterpart! The worst _she_ ever did was knock me over when I was beating her at Dance Center."

"Okay, Flare," AJ says. "You've made your point."

"When I said I wanted to surrender to Tempest, I only said that because it was more appealing than walking the plank! I didn't _actually_ want to give up!"

A bell starts ringing, and Squawks starts... squawking... and pointing toward the stern. Sure enough, an airship with the Storm King insignia is fast approaching.

"Storm guards!" the captain says. "Looks like they found you!" Gee! I wonder how!

"Tempest!" Twilight yells.

"Secure the rigging! Lock down the cargo! Everyone, prepare to be boarded!"

The bird with the hook hand shoos us into the cargo hold below deck.

"Oh my goodness!" Fluttershy whimpers.

They close the door.

"Ya think she saw my sonic rainboom?" Rainbow says.

Twilight facehoofs. "Are you _kidding me?!"_

I growl. "You know, I was _trying_ to be nice by not calling you an idiot."

"That's enough!" AJ interrupts. "You've made your point! You don't have to resort to name callin'! Now pipe down before Tempest hears us!"

"What does it matter? They _already_ know we're here! Might as well save them the trouble of searching the ship!"

Something crashes into the ship, sending us all flying to the port side of the hold. I crash into Rainbow, and everyone else crashes into me. I'll consider that payback. We're even for now.

An anchor has punched a hole in the starboard side. Tempest's ship gets closer until it stops a few feet away. A few seconds later, we hear hoofsteps.

"Where is the Pony Princess?" Tempest asks.

"Princess?" the captain says. "Princess, Princess... Nope. All we're hauling is Storm King merchandise." Where are they hauling it _to,_ anyway?

"You do realize that if you _were_ to shelter fugitives, the Storm King would be quite... explosive." Well, we're doomed.

"We have to get off this ship before they tell Tempest we're here!" Twilight loudly whispers.

"We helped them get their mojo back!" Rainbow says. "They're not gonna give us up!" They're not gonna let us down!

So I guess we're supposed to sit here and hope Tempest just moves on? I doubt that'll happen. She _knows_ we're here.

"I've got this," Twilight says.

"You've got what, Gloriosa?"

"Who's Gloriosa?" Rainbow asks.

Twilight grabs a rope and one of the pirate flags, then gives the flag to Rainbow. "Hold this."

"What are you _doing?"_ Rainbow says.

Twilight grabs a lever with her magic.

"I... have a _very_ bad feeling about this..." What... the hell... is she planning?

She moves a crate over to us, then pulls the lever. Immediately after, the floor gives out from under us. _What!?_ Everyone screams in terror.

 _"Oh, for Celestia's sake!"_ Rarity yells.

 _This_ is why I'm petrified of heights! I look up at Twilight. _"_ _ **This**_ _was your master plan?! Send us plummeting to whatever this planet's name is with a crate of worthless toys and posters?!"_

I shut my eyes. If I knew Twilight was gonna do something like _this_ , I would've surrendered! I desperately want to see Olivia again – not just for my sake, but for hers as well. If she never sees me again and is never told I ended up a red stain on the ground somewhere way south of Equestria, she's gonna go out of her mind with worry. Not knowing would definitely be worse for her, and that's exactly what's going to happen.

This all started because I trusted these seven. If I had just hidden in one of the tents, I wouldn't be seconds away from my time in this world coming to an abrupt end.

I feel myself falling slower. I slowly open my eyes. All of us are being held in Twilight's magic grip. She places us in the now empty crate and grabs the rope.

"What in the hay is she up to?" AJ asks.

Honestly, I gave up trying to figure this pony out as soon as she ejected us from the hold.

She pulls a cloth down, ties part of the rope to it, and wraps the other part around the crate.

"Wait... Is she making a..."

She flies into the crate, grabs Spike, and does what looks like the Heimlich maneuver on him. He spews out a tall green flame, causing the makeshift balloon to start to inflate and slightly slow our descent. At the very last second, we abruptly stop, and the balloon levels out. Everypony breathes a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness..." Rarity says.

"Phee-yew!" AJ says. "Quick thinkin', Twilight."

"Yahoo! Ha-ha!" That is the most excited I've heard Twilight all day!

"That was fun! Can we do it again?" Pinkie asks with a smile.

 _"Two_ near-death experiences per adventure are enough for me, thanks," I say.

Rainbow flies out of the crate. "Next stop, Mount Aris!" She starts pushing the balloon toward the mountain in the distance.

"We're home free!" Twilight says.

Everypony cheers.

I look at Rainbow. "Uh... Rainbow?" I say. "I'm, uh... I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier."

"You don't have to apologize," she says. "I _royally_ screwed up. I deserved it."

"You did, but you didn't deserve to be called an idiot. I was over the line."

"We _all_ say things we regret from time to time. I know you didn't mean it."

I _did_ mean it, but I shouldn't have _said_ it. "So... we're cool?"

"Yup. Apology accepted." She holds up a hoof.

I breathe a sigh of relief, then bump her hoof with mine. "Thanks, Rainbow. That takes _one_ weight off my shoulders."

"Anyway, now that we have some more downtime, how about continuing your story from earlier?"

"Oh, yes," Rarity says. "I've been _dying_ to know what happened after you became friends with our CHS counterparts."

Rather poor choice of words there, Rarity. "Alright. Just give me a moment to compose myself." I take a few deep breaths. "Okay... So once I became friends with those girls, my life quickly got better. Nobody bullied me anymore, and for the first time in months, I actually looked forward to going to school every day. The new Sunset Shimmer is so, _so_ much better than the old Sunset Shimmer. I actually... kinda... developed a crush on her."

"You did?" AJ says.

"Talk about a quick rebound!" Rarity says.

"About a month after the battle, CHS was set to face off against their rival school – Crystal Prep Academy – in a competition called the Friendship Games. It's held every four years, and Crystal Prep _always_ wins. CHS chooses their 12 competitors through a popularity contest, while CPA picks their top 12 students. During the meet-and-greet period the day before the Games, I saw somebody I never thought I'd see again."

"Olivia?" Fluttershy asks.

"Uh-huh. I knew she moved to another school, but I didn't think it was Crystal Prep. She was... actually pretty miserable during her time there, too. Because she transferred there from CHS, the principal wanted to inconvenience her as much as possible. Her prosthesis wasn't strong enough to handle walking up and down 12 flights of stairs every day, and she wasn't allowed to use the elevators because they're only for people with crutches or a wheelchair. The principal also forced her to compete in the competition. It was during this that our world's Twilight Sparkle, who also attended Crystal Prep, started investigating the mysterious things going on at CHS. She built a device that could track down and contain any anomalies she could find. I'm still not sure _exactly_ what she was hoping to find, but the device was alerting her to my friends' magic, and it drained their magic when they ponied up. It even took away the portal."

"Ponied up?" Rainbow asks.

"When they show their truest selves –" I look at the respective ponies. "in this case, Rarity being generous by sharing a bunch of her outfits with everyone, Fluttershy being kind and cheering up others, Pinkie getting everyone together and having a good time, Applejack for being honest and helping someone, and Rainbow for being loyal and saving one of her friends – or when playing their musical instruments, their magic activates, giving them pony ears, longer hair that resembles a tail, and pegasus wings for Fluttershy and Rainbow. Anyway, after Twilight's pendant thingy took the portal, it started opening its own portals to Equestria. Some strange plant monster nearly ruined one of the events."

"Plant monster, huh?" the princess says. "Sounds like it opened portals in the Everfree Forest."

"I heard about that place. It sounds just like a normal forest back home."

"If you know _exactly_ where you want to go and the quickest way to get there," Rainbow says, "it's not as frightening as everypony says."

"There _are_ some dangerous creatures in that place," AJ says, "but most of them are deeper in the forest than any sane pony would go."

"The worst thing I've run into was a cockatrice," Twilight says. "To be fair, I _was_ well off the main road."

"Anyway," I continue, "when I saw her pendant draining Applejack's magic, I tried to force it shut, but my hand slipped into the stream of magic."

"And that's how you got those wings?" Fluttershy asks.

"No, but it _did_ have an effect. Before the Friendship Games, I wasn't a very good singer. After that happened, my singing voice dramatically improved."

"Can we hear it?" Rainbow asks.

"Uh... Sure, why not?" I clear my throat, then sing the second half of the opening verse from my favorite song. Since I don't have my geode, I don't have to worry about riling them up.

"Wow! That was _really_ good!" Pinkie says, and everyone else agrees.

"Is that song about Olivia?" Rarity asks.

"Nah, I just picked the part that describes her the most. Although she's _actually_ crazy about Cheese Sandwich, and while she doesn't really care about horses, she _does_ love her boyfriend." As I've recently realized. I sigh. I'm _almost_ there, Liv. Just hang on a little longer. "After seeing that magic mishap, Crystal Prep's principal convinced Twilight to use the magic she captured to help their school win the final event. Twilight unleashed the magic, and it overwhelmed her. She went mad with power and opened so many portals between worlds, it threatened to destroy ours. Sunset used the magic that was left over and defeated her. All of us knew it wasn't her fault, and we quickly forgave her. As for Olivia, her prosthesis ended up being so badly damaged, she couldn't walk on it. And she _snapped_ at the principal. It was, like, ten times worse than when I yelled at Rainbow earlier."

"Did she beat the principal up?" Rainbow asks.

"No, she wasn't _that_ mad. She _did_ use some... colorful language."

"Ooh!" Pinkie says. _"How_ colorful? Were there a lot of blues and greens?"

"Not _literally_ colorful." I whisper to her, "She called her a..." finishing with one of the 'colorful' words.

"Why would calling somepony a dog be colorful?" she says, confused.

Rainbow sighs. "Just... don't mind her. So, did Olivia get suspended?"

"Nope. With everybody either forgetting she has a fake leg or apologizing for making fun of her, she was eager to transfer back to CHS. Twilight transferred as well. And... I asked Sunset out."

"I thought you would've gotten back together with Olivia," AJ says.

"We were apart for too long and didn't part on the greatest of terms. Combined with my crush on Sunset, we both knew we wouldn't be able to go back to what we had."

"But you did," Rainbow says.

"Yeah." I look at the mountain. We're very close to it. "And I'll get to that later."


	7. Sea Shells

I think Twilight has lost it. We need to get to the hippogriffs as quickly as we can, so of course the best place to land our makeshift hot air balloon is _at the bottom of the mountain!_ At least there are rock stairs leading up the mountain... except navigating stairs with four legs is a _lot_ more tricky than just walking on flat ground, so I'm bringing up the rear. And there are a _lot_ of stairs... and I've already overworked my wings _once_ today.

"We _had_ to crash the balloon at the bottom of the mountain!" Rarity yells. "That's it!" She stops. "I simply... cannot... even! I have nothing... The bad guys have won!" She collapses. "I'm so sorry..." She draws out the last syllable to a high-pitched squeal.

I sigh. Of _all_ the traits for human and pony Rarity to share, I hoped being over-dramatic _wouldn't_ be one of them.

"We're almost there!" Rainbow yells.

Rarity growls. "Will you stop saying that?!"

"No, really!" Rainbow flies out of view.

Well... I guess since we _are_ almost there, I could fly the rest of the distance. I start flapping my wings and push off the ground, then slowly gain altitude.

"We're _actually_ here!" I hear Rainbow say.

The entrance area comes into view. On each side is a statue of what I guess is a hippogriff, forming an archway of sorts. I land next to Twilight.

Twilight gasps. "This is it!" We begin walking.

"Ooh!" Pinkie says.

"Well, I'll be," AJ says with a laugh. "Hippogriffs, here we come!"

As we head into town, the area looks... quite run-down. Almost as if this place was abandoned ages ago. The trees are almost completely barren and there's a dense fog blanketing everything.

"Are we _sure_ this is the right place?" Rarity asks.

"Hello?" AJ calls out. "Anypony home?"

"No hippogriffies here!" Pinkie says. "Or here! Or here!" If Pinkie can't find them with her mysterious teleportation-like abilities, they must not be here. She lands in front of a rock next to Twilight. "Waaaaait..." She checks under it. "Nope! This place is emp-ty!"

I sigh. Surrendering is looking more and more appealing...

"But... Celestia... The map... They _have_ to be here."

"Something bad happened here," Spike says. "Something that turned this whole place into a ghost town!"

"A... g-g-g-ghost town?" Fluttershy stammers in fear.

"Relax, Fluttershy," I say. "There aren't any _actual_ ghosts." I hope...

I hear someone humming in the distance.

"Or... maybe there are."

"It's coming from over there!" Twilight says. An opening to a cave is blocked by a bunch of rocks. We walk over to it. Twilight quickly finds an opening we can crawl through. Inside, the humming gets louder. When reach the end, we find... something I didn't expect to find.

There's a pool with two hippogriff statues acting as fountains, a flower in the water, and a bunch of symbols on the wall in the back. It's quite impressive.

Pinkie starts walking down the stairs, then stops. "What was that?!"

Something leaps from the flower into the water.

Pinkie hops down the stairs. "Hey, wait up! Cannonball!" She jumps into the water after it. _Why_ is she so reckless?!

"Pinkie!" Twilight yells. The others run down the stairs while I fly over them. They step into the water and I do the same. It's shallow enough for us to stand on the ground below.

Pinkie surfaces and spits some water out of her mouth. "She's gone!" Well, so much for that.

Was that... the sound of a toilet flushing?

"Now what?" Twilight says.

"Huh?"

The water starts swirling around and we all get dragged out. It looks like a whirlpool opened up and we're getting sucked in.

"Well, we're screwed." Again. Everyone else starts yelling.

"Oh, boy," Rarity says. "I hate epic adventures."

Really? "Well, it's a good thing you've gone on, like, _twenty_ epic adventures already!"

"Eight!" Pinkie yells as the vortex swirls us around the center. "Although I guess it depends on what counts as an epic adventure! Vanquishing Nightmare Moon, going after Discord, our two Daring Do adventures... Were those two epic enough?"

"Whatev–!"

It spits us out somewhere underwater.

Fantastic! This adventure started out with me nearly drowning, and now it's gonna end with _all_ of us drowning! We just delayed the inevitable! Since I was in the middle of yelling, I wasn't able to take a long enough breath to keep it held for long. I exhale, which supposedly helps with giving a few more seconds.

Lungs... burning... Can't... go... on...

The breathing reflex is finally too overpowering, forcing me to take a breath. Instead of water, I take in air. There's no water around my head anymore. How the... As I continue to breathe in much-needed oxygen, I open my eyes. There's some sort of bubble surrounding my head.

"Way to leave it to the last minute, Twilight!" Pinkie says.

"Yeah..." I pant. "A second later, and I'd have lungs full of water."

"I didn't make these bubbles!" she says.

"Then... who _did?"_ Fluttershy asks.

Something swims past us.

"Hello?" Twilight says. "We're looking for the hippogriffs."

A bright light approaches us. "How do I know I can trust you?" it says.

Trust... That's exactly what got us into this mess in the first place.

"Please. The Storm King invaded our land, and we need their help."

"The Storm King?" The light moves in a circle before forming a... "I'm _so_ glad I saved you guys!" Some type of sea creature. She swims up to us. "I'm _totally_ taking you to my mom!" She grabs Twilight's hoof and starts swimming. Everyone else grabs a hind leg on the pony who moves in front of them. I grab Pinkie's, and Fluttershy grabs mine.

"Does your mother know where they are?"

The sea creature giggles. "She might have an idea~!"

"So... That's a yes?" I say.

She leads us through a long underwater cave, giving me time to work on my four-legged swimming. At the other end is... yet another amazing sight. It looks like a giant underwater chandelier illuminating the area.

We follow her inside, and the inside is _huge!_ It kinds reminds me of Twilight's castle, except with undersea plants lining the perimeter and several jellyfish with _very_ long tentacles. There's even one above the fish... thing... illuminating what I guess is the throne. Why does _everything_ underwater look so beautiful? It's almost unfair!

"Mother," the one who brought us here whispers. She swims over to her mother. "Look what _I_ found~!"

Her mother says something, then looks at us. She gasps. "Princess Skystar!" she angrily says. "What have you done? You _know_ surface dwellers are forbidden here!" She points at us. "Guards!"

Four others with spears rush toward us and surround us.

"No no n-no! M-M-Mom, please!" Princess Skystar stammers. "It is _so_ not like that! The Storm King is trying to destroy _their_ home, too!"

"We need to find the hippogriffs," Twilight says. "Do you know what happened to them?"

"Well, of course I know," the queen says. "I'm the queen. I know everything."

"Oh, oh! It's _such_ a good story!" Skystar says.

"Don't you _dare_ tell them!"

* * *

"Hold on now," AJ says after the princess finishes her story. "Lemme get this straight. When the Storm King came, you just abandoned your entire city and fled?"

"We didn't flee! We swam! Y'know, in order to flee."

"So... you fled," I say.

"But... how?" Twilight asks.

"Oh! Can we show them?" she asks Queen Novo. "Huh? These are the first guests we've had in, like, forever~! Can we can we can we can we can we –"

"Well, I _suppose_ I _should_ make sure it still works."

Wow, she's more persistent than Pinkie.

They swim to the jellyfish above them and lower some plant leaves from the center. An orb of some kind floats out. The queen rubs the top, and... something... flows out of it and toward us. It surrounds each of us, and I feel something odd in my hind legs. Right after, that feeling turns into a ticklish one. I shut my eyes and do my best to stifle a giggle. When I open my eyes, I look at my hind legs. Instead of legs, I now have one long tail, with fins at the end matching my hair color. My cutie mark is on a scale near the tip of the tail. I no longer have my air bubble, yet I can breathe.

"Huh... This is interesting." I look behind me. My siren wings are unchanged. "Maybe now I can properly swim."

"These fins are _divine!"_ Rarity exclaims.

"Hey, Applejack!" Rainbow says to AJ. "I'll race ya to that coral!"

"You're on!" They start their race.

I feel around my neck. I can't find any gills. I have no idea how I can breathe underwater without them, but I learned long ago not to question magic.

"Guys?" I look at Spike. "Guys?" He's a puffer fish? "What is –" He puffs up. "– happening?!"

I chuckle. "Spike can't catch a break. He's a dog in my world and a puffer fish here."

"Aw... So cute!" Fluttershy says.

"This is _amazing!"_ Twilight excitedly says. She swims over to Queen Novo. "With this, we could transform everypony at home into something powerful enough to face the Storm King's army!"

 _"Or,"_ she says, "it could end up in his greedy claws!"

"But..."

I swim over to them.

"Honey, I'm sorry about your home. I truly am. But my responsibility is to protect _my_ subjects." She places the pearl back in its leafy container. "The pearl... is not going anywhere."

"But we've come all this way. And you can't just hide down here! Trapped forever! There's _so_ much you're missing!"

"We are one hundred percent okay with that!"

"Well, _I'm_ not!" I say. "Please... My girlfriend is back there! I _know_ she's miserable, and I _want_ to be there for her. After I got separated from her, I came all this way with my friends because I thought you would help us. I don't care what happens to me. All I want is the love of my life to be safe."

"That's a touching story, but my mind is made up."

An octopus-like creature swims up to her and says something.

"Yes, Jamal?"

It says something else.

"Ooh! Time for my seaweed wrap."

...

"Yes, a massage, too." They swim away.

I sigh. So our one and only hope to save everyone won't even help us.

The others swim over to us. "So that's it?!" AJ says. "We left home for nothin'?"

"It... can't be..." I mutter.

"Oh, my gosh!" Skystar says. "Best... idea! You can stay with us! Forever! There are _so_ many things we can do! We can make friendship bracelets out of shells and..."

How can she think that's a good idea? Especially after what I just told her mother! I don't think _any_ of us want to stay.

"...to share them with! I mean, aside from my friends, Shelly and Sheldon." She's holding a red clam shell and a blue clam shell, each with google eyes glued to the top. "Right, Shelly? Sheldon?" She giggles and snorts. "Get it?"

She _is_ another Pinkie Pie!

"That... sounds lovely, darling," Rarity says, "but you must realize we can't stay."

"We've gotta get back to our families," AJ says.

"Oh, no, of course, of course! Of _course_ you have your own friends back home. It's fine. It's fine!" In a whisper, she says, "Shelly and Sheldon get jealous anyways." I can tell she's disappointed. "It's probably for the best." She sighs. "Yeah, I'll just, um... I'll get Mom to, uh, turn you back so you can go home..." She swims away, dejected.

"I _know_ we have to go," Pinkie says, "but you guys saw how disappointed Princess Skystar was. Couldn't we stay for just a _little_ longer?"

"Pinkie," AJ says, "we don't have time for –"

"Oh, no!" Twilight interrupts. "No no. Pinkie's right!"

"She is?" I ask.

"Well, we _still_ need to come up with a plan to get back. A few minutes won't make a huge difference. And if there's anypony who can cram a lifetime of fun into a blink of an eye, it's Pinkie Pie!"

Pinkie smiles excitedly.

"So go ahead and show Skystar the best time ever!"

Pinkie salutes Twilight. "I won't let you down!"

Twilight pushes the group over to Pinkie. "I'm counting on it."

I swim out of the way as the group leaves the... I guess this is the palace.

Twilight looks up at the jellyfish the pearl is stored under.

"Uh... Twilight?" I ask. "What... are you... planning?"

"If they won't give us the pearl, I'll have to take matters into my own hooves."

She can't mean... "You're gonna _steal_ it?"

"I'm not gonna _steal_ it. I'll just _borrow_ it until we save everypony, then return it before they even know it's gone!"

I swim in front of her. "I understand you're desperate, but you can't just _take_ something from the place we've spent hours and hours trying to find!"

"If they would've just _helped_ us, I wouldn't have to resort to drastic measures!"

"W-well..." I get what she's saying, but there has to be another way.

"That pearl is the _only_ way you're going to be able to save Olivia. Wouldn't you do _anything_ to rescue her?"

I glare at her. "I _know_ what you're doing. The sirens used the _exact_ same tactic to get me to side with them. Well, I'm _not_ gonna be manipulated again! I'm not siding with you because you got in my head. I love Olivia, and I'd probably _hurt_ somebody if I knew it would keep her safe!" I swim out of the way. "Do what you feel you have to do."

She places a hoof on my shoulder and smiles. "I knew you'd understand."

"So what can I do to help?"

She points to the opening below us. "Stand guard down there. Signal me if anyone gets close."

"On it, Your Majesty." I swim out of the room. I can see my friends near the sea floor. Looks like they're dancing, as are other sea ponies around them. I'm guessing that's yet _another_ musical number. Four songs in one day is _beyond_ excessive. The only good thing about this song is they're too far away for me to hear them. Olivia's not a fan of this type of stuff either, but she isn't as vocal about it as me. She's more confused than annoyed, and they actually fascinate her.

I look around. Having to cover a 360-degree view by myself isn't ideal, but I just have to look for anything moving in the distance.

Everyone seems to be minding their own business. It also looks like the musical is coming to a close.

A loud alarm goes off from within the throne room. That can't be good! I quickly swim up. Twilight is tangled in the jellyfish's tentacles, trying to reach the pearl. I slap my hoof against my forehead. "Of _course_ they have a security alarm..."

She looks at me. "Ow! Little... help? Ow!"

Of all the things I thought there would be in this world, a proper alarm system was pretty low on that list. The technology for this type of thing doesn't seem to exist yet.

Someone growls behind me. I look back. Queen Novo is... none too pleased at this. She swims toward Twilight and grabs the pearl.

"No! Please!"

"All of this so you could sneak in and take the pearl?!"

I sigh. "If you just agreed to help us in the first place, Twilight wouldn't have had to stoop this low!"

She grabs Skystar. _"This_ is why we don't bring strangers into our home!" She glares at Twilight. "You don't _deserve_ to be one of us..."


	8. Broken Glass

We make it back to shore at the bottom of the mountain. Saying that could've gone a lot better would be a massive understatement.

"What were you thinkin'?" AJ angrily asks. "I mean, stealin' their pearl?!"

Twilight sighs. "It was the only way to save Equestria!"

"Except it _wasn't!"_ Pinkie says. "The Queen was going to say yes! We did what you told us and that's what made her realize we were ponies worth saving!" After a breif pause, she gasps. "Unless... you didn't really _want_ us to show her the best time ever! You just wanted us to distract her!"

"I never would have done it," Twilight angrily says, "but this isn't Equestria! We can't just dance around with con artists, make rainbooms in the sky and expect everything to work out! It's _not_ enough! We are _not_ enough!"

"No, Twilight," Pinkie says. _"We_ stuck together. _We_ were gonna get the help we needed! The only thing that stopped us... was _you!"_

This is bad... _really_ bad...

"Well, I'm _doing the best I can!_ It's all on me. _I'm_ the one Tempest wants. _I'm_ the last Princess!"

I need to step in... but what do I say?

"You're _also_ the only one who _doesn't trust her friends!"_

"Well, maybe I would've been better off _**without friends like you!"**_

 _ **"TWILIGHT! ENOUGH!"**_ I yell.

Pinkie looks dejected. I think it's safe to say Twilight screwed up _big time_. And it looks like Twi just realized it. I look at the others. Rainbow is angry, Applejack is upset, Rarity is surprised, and Fluttershy... I think she's trying to process what just happened.

Pinkie sulks away.

"Pinkie, I..."

Pinkie sniffles. "I just can't talk to you right now..." She continues walking. The others follow.

"You comin', Flare?" AJ flatly asks me.

I look back and forth between Twilight and the others. I let out an exhausted sigh. It doesn't matter who I stick with. I'll never see Olivia ever again. And all of us are to blame. Rainbow performed a sonic rainboom which alerted Tempest of our presence and all of them encouraged it. Twilight didn't trust her friends and resorted to theft, and even convinced me to go along with it. I followed these girls in the hope of hiding somewhere safe.

Also dejected, Twilight slowly walks in the other direction.

I have to decide which would be more likely to not blow up in my face. If I go with the group, we'll probably make it back to civilization and figure out what to do from there. If I go with Twilight, I'll still need to worry about running into Tempest, and who knows what she'll do with me.

I take a deep breath. I walk in Twilight's direction. While I hate that she manipulated me, she's the only pony who had a similar 'no nonsense' objective as myself. And right now, Tempest finding us honestly wouldn't be all that bad. I hope...

Twilight walks onto a rock overlooking the water below and sits down, hanging her head down.

"Um... T-Twilight? I... Uh..." What should I say at a time like this? What _can_ I say? The Princess of Friendship just lost her five closest friends. I fly over to her.

"Twilight?" Spike says in a hushed tone. "It's okay. You'll figure it out."

"No," she says through her tears. "I can't. I ruined everything. There's no chance to save Equestria now." She's taking it harder than I expected. "It's all my fault."

I sit on her left and let out a sigh. I want to tell her it's _not_ all her fault. I want to explain all of us are partly to blame. But I know it won't help. In a way, she's right. _She_ said something she shouldn't have.

"Spike?" She looks back, and I do the same.

Welp... One of the Storm King's soldiers is holding Spike. Twilight immediately gets to her hooves and readies a magic attack. Before she can unleash it, a cage falls onto us.

"Aaah!" And... there goes our freedom. "No no no no no!" The cage starts moving up. _"Spike!"_

I collapse to the floor and shut my eyes. I wonder if this _was_ the right choice. By following Twilight, I pretty much accepted my fate. With our group fractured, it was only a matter of time.

The cage stops and I open my eyes. We're in some ominous-looking room. Twilight tries breaking out with her magic, but to no avail.

Tempest walks into view. "Aww... the Princess of Friendship... With no friends!" She chuckles. "And no way out."

I stand up. "She still has me."

She chuckles again. "And how is a _human_ going to help a princess?"

Wha... "How do you..."

"Don't worry. I have _special_ plans for you. Now... Be a good little monkey and let the big girls talk."

"What have you done with Olivia?!" I snap.

"Relax," she scowls. "She's unharmed. If you want her to _stay_ that way, I _suggest_ you stay out of our business."

"You..." I sigh. If it'll keep Olivia safe, I don't have much of a choice. I lay down and rest my head in my forelegs.

"Why are you doing this?" Twilight says. "You're a pony! Just like me."

I hear Tempest slam into the cage and charge her horn.

"I'm _nothing_ like you! I'm more than you'll _ever_ be."

Something grabs my tail and yanks me back. "Ow!" I open my eyes. I'm now outside the cage.

"Don't... move!" Tempest commands.

Not like I can go anywhere anyway.

Tempest returns her attention to Twilight.

 _It's time you learned a lesson_

Good. Another song. I don't even care anymore. This whole adventure has broken me. I want to just go to sleep, wake up, and hope it was all just a bad dream.

Where did it all go wrong...?

* * *

 *****A couple months earlier*****

 _Starlight sighs. "I'm so sad to leave. I haven't really had the chance to get to know all of you."_

 _Sunset opens her bag and takes out her journal. She reads it to herself for a moment. "Maybe you don't_ _ **have**_ _to leave yet."_

 _ **Dear Sunset,**_

 _ **Some lessons are better learned in action, and all of you are great teachers. Starlight should stay for a few more days. Enjoy the premiere!**_

 _Awesome! Everyone cheers._

 _"Huh! Think you can focus on the positives?"_

 _"Whatever happens is gonna happen. I've just gotta live in the moment, right?"_

 _"Right!"_

 _Starlight's advice applies to me as well. I'm starting to fully embrace the magical stuff that does happen and not worry about when the next one will happen. I'm also not nervous about using my power anymore, but I'll only use it as a last resort. Using it to get my way a couple times might not be a problem, but it could easily corrupt me, leading to me getting exactly what I want all the time until I find a magic-infused object which acts as the sirens' pendants. From there, all bets are off._

 _I've already been on the side of evil once. I'm not going back. Besides, I don't think Olivia would like me if I did that._

 _Speaking of magic... "Hey, Starlight?" I ask. "If it's okay with Twilight, Olivia and I would like to visit Equestria sometime."_

 _"You would?" Sunset says._

 _"Why do you need_ _ **my**_ _approval?" Sci-Twi asks._

 _"Not_ _ **you**_ _, Sci-Twi," I say._

 _"Sci-Twi?" Juniper asks._

 _"It's the nickname he gave the Twilight from this world," Sunset says._

 _"From..._ _ **this**_ _world? And what's 'Equestria'?"_

 _"We'll explain later," Olivia says. "But yeah, I really want to know what it's like in that pony world, if Princess Twilight is okay with it."_

 _"I don't see why she_ _ **wouldn't**_ _be okay with it," Starlight says. Sounds like you'd bring us with even if she said no._

 _"I'll ask her," Sunset says._

 _"Awesome!" Olivia says. "I can't wait!"_

 _Neither can I!_

* * *

 *****Less than 12 hours earlier*****

 _A rumble of thunder interrupts the meeting. Everypony looks in its direction. A series of black clouds are moving toward the city._

 _"Storm clouds?!" Twilight exclaims. "I ordered perfect weather!"_

 _"I'm gonna take cover," Olivia says to me. "If this prosthesis is like my other one, I don't want it to get wet when exposed like this."_

 _"Should I come with?" I ask._

 _"You don't have to. Unless you're afraid of getting your fur wet."_

 _"Alright. Stay dry."_

 _"I'll try." She walks over to one of the shops._

* * *

 _"I was hoping you'd choose... difficult." Two creatures appear behind Tempest and two other ships fly in._

 _I need to get to Olivia. I look at the nearest tent. She's not there. Wouldn't she pick the one that's closest to me?_

 _A bunch of creatures that look like the Storm King drop from the ships, sending everypony into a panic._

 _Well, no better time to learn how to run. I run to the tent I thought Olivia was in._

 _"Olivia? You in here?" No response. I run to the right, quickly checking each tent. "Olivia? Liv?" No response from any of them. "Where the hell is she?!" I hurry back to the tent I started at, then check the other tents. She's still nowhere to be found. Maybe she went somewhere else?_

 _"Over here, y'all!" Applejack yells, likely not to me._

 _I sigh. I hope she's safe. The Element bearers probably know this place better than I do, so following them might be best. I run after them, a couple soldiers behind us._

* * *

Coming here was Olivia's idea. I'm not blaming her, though. She had no way of knowing all this would happen. I also can't blame myself. I followed the girls, but I expected them to lead me somewhere safe. Likewise, how was I to know it would lead to the worst adventure ever?

* * *

I step off of the ship, being led around on a leash. I get my first view of what Canterlot has become, and it's... depressing. Several ponies are muzzled and being led around, with one even being used as a footrest for a guard. Others are locked in cages similar to the one Twilight is in.

One pony is in the center of a cage. They're wearing earplugs, a blindfold, and a muzzle. The muzzle also covers their horn. Each leg is restrained by chains that are connected to the edges of the cage.

Wait... That's a... fake leg...

...

 _"Olivia!"_ I angrily turn to Tempest. _"What the hell_ did you do to her?!" Several guards in the area stand up.

"Your lover was lashing out. We simply made sure she couldn't hurt herself."

"You said she was _unharmed! That_ is _not_ un–hmmph!" Something gets strapped to my face. "Wrrt th fmmh?!"

"Put him in the cage next to the problem pony," she says to a guard.

"Yuu fmm lrr! Mml fmm _kmm yuu!"_ She's gone _TOO FAR!_

I get dragged over to the cage, picked up, and thrown inside. My back slams into the cage, but I'm too enraged to feel any pain. I quickly stand up and shout at Tempest, who resumes walking.

I glance to my left. Seeing Olivia like this... In an instant, my anger is gone. I collapse to the ground, and the tears start flowing.

"Olivia..."


	9. Battle Cry

Olivia's still alive. That's the _only_ positive thing about all this.

If she went livid, like Tempest said...

Why... _Why_ wasn't I here to protect her? Or at least try to keep her from losing it.

I think I would've been better off going with the others. I'd still be worried about her, but I wouldn't have to see...

Geez, this hyperspeed day/night cycle is giving me a headache! It sorta reminds me of a server I visited once where someone kept switching the time of day every minute.

Something bright catches my attention. I stand up and look toward the entrance. There's a tall blue cake being pulled on a cart. There are designs of ponies being chained by... hearts?... on the bottom layer, the Storm King insignia with a heart between it on the middle layer, and a big heart with the Storm King's face on the top layer.

Spike? Why is _he_ on top of it? I look at who's pulling the cart. It's... the rest of Twilight's friends... And... Capper is leading them? Looking as sad as she did earlier, Pinkie spots me. She immediately smiles and winks at me, then returns to looking sad. Are they planning something?

Hm... That's a _really_ tall cake. Every time I've seen one _that_ tall in movies and TV shows, there's been someone hiding inside.

...

You're kidding... There's _no_ way!

That porcupine thing jumps onto the back of the cart and wipes away some of the icing. It's a little tough to see from here, but I... _think_ there's an eyeball in that cake. Looks like I was right. After a few seconds, it blinks. I bet that's Squawks. I mean, at least _try_ to keep your eye open!

The porcupine starts to panic. "Guards!" One of the pirates grabs him and yanks him inside. Well, so much for _that_ plan... whatever it was. Two guards block their path in front while two others approach from behind.

"The jig is up!" Rainbow yells. She kicks the wagon. All five pirates and... Princess Skystar?! In... what I think is her original hippogriff form. They leap out of the cake with a yell.

"Come on!" the pirate captain says. All twelve charge toward the nearest guards. I keep an eye on Squawks, who sneaks up behind one guard and traps him with his life preserver. I glance to the left, where AJ has hogtied another.

"Surprise!"

In front of my cage, Pinkie hands a guard a present, then runs away. What is that, an exploding box? Knowing Pinkie, it's probably gonna blast confetti in his face.

Pinkie stands up, now in the box – because _of course_ she is – and holding a cupcake.

 _"Double surprise!"_ She slams the cupcake into the guard's face. I chuckle. Not _quite_ as funny as a pie to the face, but still worth a laugh. She jumps out of the box, then starts whipping cupcake after cupcake at the guard. "Whee!" The guard turns and tries to run away, but slams into a wall. Pinkie keeps rapid-firing cupcakes, laughing maniacally.

"Pnnke!" I yell.

She slowly ends her attack, breathing heavily. "That was fun!" She looks at me. "Don't worry, Flare! We'll get you outta there as soon as we can!" She places a cupcake in my cage.

Even in the middle of a battle, she goes out of her way to see her friends smile... if she _could_ see me smile. "Thmms, Pnnke."

"Head for the castle!" the captain yells. "We'll hold them off!"

The Element bearers, Capper, and Skystar run up the long ramp leading to the castle area

While the fighting continues, I lay down and look at the cupcake. With everything that just happened, I don't have much of an appetite. I'm also not big on strawberry flavor. I'll save it for Olivia. She'll probably need it more than me.

I rest my eyes. It's good that we _are_ gonna be saved, but... Olivia... She probably _is_ unharmed physically, but I'm more worried about the emotional toll this whole thing might've taken on her. She made so, _so_ much progress in coming out of her shell. To think all that work could've been undone in just one Saturday...

I've seen her at her worst twice. The first time was when Sunset discovered our secret relationship and told everybody. Liv started getting picked on 20 times a _day_ after that. There wasn't a day that went by where she _wasn't_ on the verge of tears. Unfortunately, I know exactly how that feels. When she transferred to Crystal Prep, all that torment was directed solely at me. The second was after she went mad with power a couple months ago. Both times we started dating, she told me she felt like the luckiest girl in the world. I was able to calm her down when I told her no matter how many times she got anything she wanted, she _couldn't_ be the luckiest girl in the world if she broke up with me. Her breakdown after was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. Each time, she came out of it relatively unchanged. But after what Tempest said...

I shake the thought out of my head. "No. I can't think about that. I've stayed strong up to this point. I _need_ to hope for the best." I sigh. I should think of the good times.

She warmed up to me quickly once we started hanging out, likely because she was about to move to Manehattan. She _really_ wanted to spend more than one day a week with me, but I couldn't let my other friends think something was up and risk them discovering the truth. When she eventually asked me out and I accepted, she was _so_ excited! Almost all of our dates ended up being at either her house or mine, but it didn't matter. Wherever we were, we had a fantastic time. Reuniting with her at the Friendship Games was a pleasant surprise for both of us, and while we didn't start going out again, we had fun catching up with each other. Once we _did_ get back together, she was the happiest I'd ever seen her at the time, especially since we could be together in public. And when I gave her that Cheese Sandwich ticket... Oh man, she was _ecstatic!_ She probably would've kissed me all day! I should've let her.

It might be a while, but I hope we can have more fun times like those. Maybe, if this hasn't scarred her _too_ badly, we could give Equestria another try one day. Twilight told me Equestria-threatening events are very rare, although there's been a significant increase in their frequency as of late. We just happened to come here on the day one of those took place. As long as Olivia isn't petrified of this happening again, I can hopefully convince her to make a return trip.

"You gonna mope around all day?"

I look up. The pirate captain is looking down at me, and the cage I was in has disappeared.

"Hmm?" I look behind her. Everything doesn't look as dreary as before, and nopony is chained to anything or locked in cages. She removes my muzzle. "Wh... When did..."

"Literally ten seconds ago," she says. She holds out her claw. I hold my hoof out and she grabs it, pulling me up and onto my other hooves.

"Thanks so much for helping save us. I, uh... I never got your name back on the ship."

"Captain Celaeno, at your service."

"Right. Captain Celaeno." Wait, everyone's... I immediately look to my left. Olivia is lying on the ground, and all of her restraints have disappeared. "Olivia!" I run over to her. Her eyes are closed and the fur under them has been stained with tears. She's not wearing her glasses, which are on the ground behind her. From what I can see, it looks like she _is_ physically unharmed. "Olivia?"

"Mmm..." She moves her left foreleg slightly.

"Olivia?"

"Mmm..." She slowly opens her eyes and looks at me. "Fuh... Fl...are...?" she groggily says.

I smile. "It's okay. Everything's back to normal."

"Flare..."

I sit down next to her. "I'm here now."

She slowly sits up. Tears start to form in her eyes. "I..."

I pull her into a hug. "It's all over," I whisper.

She starts crying. "I... I thought I'd never... see you again..." Her voice sounds hoarse.

I rub the back of her head. "I would _never_ abandon you," I quietly say. "I _love_ you."

She sniffles, but doesn't reply. I'm not sure if she didn't hear me or she's too choked up by everything that's happened to respond.

After a couple minutes of sobbing, she moves back to look at me. "I..." She sniffles again. "I... love you." She smiles.

I lean toward her. She does the same, and our lips meet. The kiss only lasts a few seconds, but it feels so much better than _any_ of our previous ones. When we separate, she rests her head on my shoulder again.

"Do you... wanna talk about what happened?"

I feel her shake her head. "Mm-mmm..."

Too soon. I get it. "Do you wanna go home now?"

She doesn't answer right away. I _really_ want to stay for a little longer, but I'll understand if _she_ doesn't.

She sighs. "Mm-mmm," she says with a head shake.

"You sure?"

"I... came here to have fun." She coughs. "I'm not leaving until I see Songbird Serenade perform."

Wow... I did _not_ expect her to actually stay!

"Are... you two okay?" I look up. Starlight is standing in front of us.

We separate. "A little shaken up, but I'm fine. Liv?"

She nods. "Mm-hmm."

"Oh, right. Now that you're here..." I say to Starlight. I point to the cupcake Pinkie placed where my cage was, then motion to myself. She picks up the cupcake with her magic and levitates it over to me. "Liv? I, uh... I saved this for you."

She looks at the cupcake. "A... cupcake?"

"You must be starving. It's not much, but..." I hold out my hooves, and Starlight puts the cupcake between them. I do my best to grip it with my hooves in a V-shape. I nod, and Starlight releases it from her magic grip. I carefully move it in front of Olivia's face. She looks at it, then takes a small bite. She's trying to be strong, but she looks so vulnerable.

She swallows it. "Thank you." She looks at Starlight. "My glasses..."

"They're behind me," I say.

Starlight walks to the side of us.

Olivia leans toward the cupcake. I meet her halfway with it and she takes another bite. She holds her hooves out in front of mine. "I can hold it," she says with her mouth full. I carefully set it between her hooves. She swallows.

Starlight slides the glasses onto Olivia's face. "Are you _sure_ you're okay?"

Olivia nods. "They didn't hurt me." She shoves the rest of the cupcake in her mouth.

"Looks like _somepony_ was hungry," Starlight says. "Where'd you get that, anyway?"

"Pinkie left it for me," I say. "I don't really like strawberry icing, and I figured Liv could use it more than me... if what Tempest said is true."

Olivia stands up. "Can we –" She coughs. "Can we _not_ talk about that right now?"

"So, are you... leaving?"

"Not yet," I say. I stand up as well. "She _really_ wants to see Songbird's performance."

"Even after _all_ you went through?"

"Princess Twilight told us crap like this is _incredibly_ rare," Olivia says, "and with everything working out each ti–" She coughs. "Geez, I _really_ destroyed my voice..." she whispers. "With everything working out each time for her and back in our world for us, I just needed to keep thinking this wouldn't be any different. Even if it took weeks."

"Then... why did you –"

"I came here to have fun, and damn it, that's what I'm gonna do."

She sighs. "Okay."

Olivia smiles at me. "Let's go, Flarey." She starts walking.

I chuckle and walk with her. "'Flarey', huh? Isn't it a little early for mushy pet names?"

"Maybe for _you."_

"Oh, hang on, Flare," Starlight says. "I'll recast that spell."

"Don't bother," I say. "After everything I've gone through today, I have no problem showing these off."

Wait, I thought she said she was afraid she'd never see me again. Then she said she _knew_ everything would work out? I'll have to ask her about that when she's willing to talk.


	10. Confetti

We're standing _way_ at the back of the crowd, waiting for Songbird's performance to begin. I'm still surprised Olivia wants to do this. _Something_ happened that caused her to lose her voice, and with how she was restrained, I was so certain she'd want to get the hell out of here as soon as possible. Maybe I've helped her get stronger than I realized.

"Flare!"

I look up. Twilight flies over to us.

"Hi, Twi."

"I'm glad to see you two are alright."

Olivia clears her throat. "'Alright' is relative."

"You're not hurt, is what I mean."

"Yeah, they didn't hurt us," I say.

"I'm _so_ sorry for getting you wrapped up in this!"

"It's fine," Olivia says.

"Like you said," I say, "this type of thing is rare. It sucks that it happened and I was separated from Liv, but we all made it through." Olivia and I kiss. "We also professed our love for each other, so it wasn't _all_ terrible."

"Say, uh... Twilight?" Olivia asks. "Can you..." She clears her throat again. "Do you think you can use your... princess privileges to get us closer to the stage?"

She chuckles. "I don't have _that_ kind of power. I _can_ get you better seats, though." She flies above Olivia. "Mind if I give you a lift?"

Olivia looks up. "Uh... I don't know..." she nervously says.

"Don't worry," I reassure her. "She's carried Pinkie Pie _much_ further without dropping her." I lean close to her ear. "And Pinkie's probably heavier than you, if she eats as many sweets as our Pinkie does," I whisper.

"But our Pinkie's not fat," she whispers back.

"Just trust me," I whisper.

She sighs. "Okay." She looks back up to Twilight. "Whenever you're ready."

I start flying, and Twilight grabs Olivia from above. She lifts Olivia off the ground and starts carrying her the same way she did for Pinkie. She flies toward the stage, and I follow. She returns to the ground directly in front of the stage. Her friends, the pirates, Capper, and Princess Skystar are there.

I land. "Hey, all."

"Hey, Flare!" Rainbow says.

"I take it you made up with Twilight?" I ask.

"Of course we did! We're not gonna let _one_ argument ruin our friendship!" She looks at Olivia. "Is this your girlfriend from CHS?"

"Uh-huh."

Olivia clears her throat. "Hello." She clears her throat again. "I'm Olivia Frost."

"Are you alright?" Applejack asks.

"I'm fine. I'm just losing my voice."

"She doesn't want to talk about it right now," I say.

"There isn't a spell to de-stress someone's vocal chords, is there?"

"Unfortunately, no," Twilight says. "You'll have to wait for them to heal on their own."

"Didn't think so." She looks at the others. "Uh... Who are your other friends?"

"This is everyone who helped save Equestria," Twilight says. She motions to each of them from our left to our right. "Princess Skystar, Capper, Lix Spittle, Boyle, Captain Celaeno, Squabble, and Mullet."

Hm... "Squabble, huh?"

Squabble squawks.

I'm still gonna call him Squawks. Hopefully he doesn't mind the nickname.

"Are you guys... pirates?" Olivia asks the birds.

"Aye, lass," Captain Celaeno says.

"We _actually_ prefer the term 'swashbuckling treasure hunters'," Mullet says.

Olivia chuckles. "Parrots as pirates. Sure, why not?"

They're... parrots? How did I not pick that up? I mean, I knew they were birds. Just not what type.

She clears her throat. "Well, I guess I owe all of you a _huge_ thank-you." She leans to my ear. "Where the hell did you go?" she whispers.

"It's a long, _long_ story," I whisper.

Rainbow walks behind Olivia. "So _this_ is your fake leg... How'd you get it?"

"I... don't like to talk about it..."

"Why not? Was it embarrassing?"

"It's on a need-to-know basis," I say.

"Right," Olivia agrees, "and nobody outside of my family and doctors needs to know. And... the man I love."

Did... she just say what I think she said? I look at her. "Really?"

She looks at me and smiles. "When we get home, I'm telling you..." She pauses, appearing to be lost in thought. "... _everything_ that happened that day."

Why the hesitation?

Spike clears his throat. "Fillies and gentlecolts!" he announces over the PA system, "get ready for a little..." With a fanfare, the spotlights move to the front of the stage, where Songbird is waiting. "...Songbird Serenade!"

Everypony cheers. Olivia stays quiet. Guess she doesn't want to do more damage to her voice.

"And now," Songbird says, "to celebrate the fact that we're all still here in one piece, give it up for Princess Twilight and her friends!" She points to us and a spotlight shines on us. Olivia and I step out of the light. She was locked up the whole time, and I just tagged along until I eventually gave up. If I didn't follow them when this started, I doubt anything would've changed.

That's how I feel about everything since the Battle of the Bands. The sirens didn't need me, I contributed nothing to our Friendship Games team that someone else could've done, I only got in the way when Gloriosa went mad with magic, and now this. It feels like I've just been along for the ride. Take me out of the picture, and the results are the same. I love spending time with my friends, but it feels like I'm a burden to them when crap hits the fan. If a zombie outbreak occurred next week and they _had_ to leave somebody behind, no doubt I'd be their first choice.

The lights turn off. Eh, I'm pretty sure I'm just paranoid. If I _was_ a burden, they would've said something. Still...

Music starts playing.

 _I know you, you're a special one_

Finally, a song moment that actually makes sense!

Following the intro verse, several backup dancers with the same hairstyle join her on-stage. I wonder if this Songbird _does_ have a younger stand-in. Or is that just for the music videos?

Both verses kinda sound like how I expected Olivia to get after all this. I look at her. She seems to be looking on in amazement. I guess she can't believe she _actually_ gets to see Songbird in concert.

"Having fun?!" I yell to Olivia during the instrumental break

"You bet! This is hella fun! _Totally_ worth the wait!"

I chuckle. If _this_ is 'hella fun', I can't wait until we go to that Cheese Sandwich concert.

There's an explosion above us. I look up. Somepony set off a group of three fireworks, each repeatedly going off one after the other. Not bad, Trixie.

 _I can see a rainbow in your tears as they fall on down_

Pinkie stands on the end of the stage. "Nice touch, Tempest!" Tem... Tempest?

I look behind me. Twilight and Tempest are standing next to each other. Um... Why?

No... You're kidding! They _forgave_ her after all she's put us through?! I sigh. _Why_ are these girls so forgiving...?

It's probably best I keep Olivia away from her. Even though Liv seems to be fine, that could change the instant she sees Tempest.

I return my attention to the stage. Much like the first verses, the third sounds like something I would say to get Olivia to cheer up. Although the line 'I'm tellin' you you cannot escape' is _very_ out-of-place. Unless she's supposed to be quoting what somepony is saying to the listener, which is still quite a stretch.

At least Olivia is having fun after... whatever she went through.


	11. Stories

All of us get onto the train. After all that happened yesterday, I _can't wait_ to get back on two legs.

"...I hardly _know_ her!"

I chuckle. This world has that wordplay joke, too?

We sit down.

"Geez... My stump is _really_ itchy..." Olivia says, her voice back to normal.

"Well, you _were_ forced to stand all day," I say, _"and_ you slept with your prosthesis on."

"I need to check on it ASAP." She looks at Twilight. "Twilight, can you help me get this off?"

"Uh, sure." Twilight looks closely at it. "How do I remove it properly?"

"If it's like my prosthesis in the other world, there should be a button somewhere."

"Hmm... I found it!"

"Okay. Hold that button down and pull. And, uh..." Olivia nervously says. "There... might be a _slight_ odor when it's removed."

"Thanks for the heads-up." Twilight surrounds the prosthesis with a purple magic aura, then slowly removes the limb. Almost as soon as it's off, she quickly backs away. "Oh my gosh!" She covers her nose and mouth with her hooves.

"Oh, come on..." Olivia says. "It's not _that_ bad."

I'm not as close as Twilight, but I can smell it. I do my best to cover my nose with my hoof. "Okay, if _that's_ not bad, I'd hate to smell what _is!"_

 _"Hoo-wee!"_ AJ says. "Smells like Big Mac after he works a double shift!"

"Wow!" Rainbow says. "And I thought the Wonderbolts locker room was stinky!"

"Alright, I get it!" Olivia says, annoyed.

I look at the sock. It's much darker than what I saw when we first arrived, likely drenched in sweat.

"I am _not_ touching that sock!" Twilight says.

"Well, _I_ can't take it off!" Olivia says. "I don't know how to do magic, and these hooves are terrible at grabbing anything!"

"Just put your prosthesis back on," I say, "and check it when you get home."

She sighs. "That _would_ be better. A fur-covered stump probably wouldn't show anything anyway."

Twilight holds it in place and Olivia slides her stump in.

"I still can't believe Songbird _personally_ gave you her autograph!" Rarity says to Olivia.

She looks to her left, where a signed photo of Songbird is lying on the seat. "Neither can I. It almost made everything worth it." After whatever happened to Olivia, Songbird wanted to make her feel better. When we said Songbird is Olivia's favorite pop singer, Songbird gave her a signed picture.

"So, uh..." Rainbow says. "Can we hear the rest of your story?"

"Whose story?" Olivia asks.

"Ours," I say. "During our adventure, I had some time to tell them about what we've gone through back in Canterlot City."

"What have you told them so far?"

"Everything that happened from Sunset discovering our relationship to the Friendship Games." I lean to her ear. "How much should I tell them about dating Sunset?"

"When you started going out and when you broke up. _No_ extra details. And _don't_ bring up my almost beating the crap out of Juniper or the clover incident."

"Got it." I turn back to the others. "So, I asked Sunset out after the Friendship Games, and Olivia warmed up to her rather quickly."

"Only because you convinced me to give her a second chance."

"You didn't mind them going out?" Applejack asks.

"At the time, I didn't like him the way I did before. If he was happy, then so was I."

"Anyway," I continue, "without going into too much detail, Sunset and I had a lot of fun as a couple. I also had fun hanging out with Olivia again."

"It had been _years_ since I had so many friends."

"But when did _you two_ become an item again?" Rarity asks.

"I'm getting to that," I say. "I need to get through Camp Everfree first."

"Camp... Everfree?" Fluttershy asks.

"Our world's Everfree Forest isn't as creepy as this one's. It's just an ordinary forest with a camp site near one of the entrances. Our grade had a fundraiser for a trip to Camp Everfree, and we easily met our goal. If it weren't for the magic shenanigans, it would've been an ordinary school trip."

"Magic shenanigans?" AJ asks.

"One of the owners, Gloriosa Daisy, found a set of geodes that somehow made it there from Equestria, and started using their power to make our week at camp the best week ever. It ended up causing more problems, including giving your human counterparts, Sunset, and myself new magical abilities."

"And... that's a problem... how?" Rainbow asks.

"Well, it was a problem for me. Sunset can see people's memories, Fluttershy can communicate with animals, Rainbow can run super fast, any party-related stuff Pinkie throws will explode, Applejack gets super strength, Rarity can summon gem barriers, and Twilight can move things with magic."

"What about you?" Fluttershy asks.

"I... I have the sirens' power."

"And... that's why your wings are like that?" Rainbow asks.

"Uh-huh. I found out I had their power when I told Olivia I had a good singing voice now. When I demoed it, she got angry and thought I was showing off." I look at Olivia. "Can I tell them?"

"Tell them what?"

"What happened that night."

She sighs. "Go ahead."

I turn back to the others. "That had an unfortunate side effect. That night, we designed floating lanterns. We released them into the sky - except Pinkie, who put too many sweets on hers."

"Hey, you can _never_ have too many sweets!" Pinkie says.

"You can when they make your lantern too heavy to fly. Anyway, I felt that was the perfect moment for our..." I glance at Olivia. She's glaring at me out of the corner of her eyes. She probably wants me to leave that part out. "Th-That's when Olivia interrupted us by throwing Pinkie's lantern at Sunset. She got _very_ jealous."

"I'm usually not the jealous type," Olivia says.

"That's when I realized I had siren power. The next day, we found out Filthy Rich was going to purchase the camp. Gloriosa was using five of the geodes to try saving the camp, and when she grabbed the other three, she became overwhelmed by the magic much like Twilight was. She trapped all of us in a dome of brambles to prevent Filthy Rich from taking the camp and keep us as permanent campers. The girls and I used our new abilities to defeat her, and we became the new owners of the geodes, letting us use our powers whenever we wanted. We held _another_ fundraiser, this time to save the camp."

"Flare wanted to leave his geode behind."

"Yeah, I didn't think I'd ever have a use for it. But Olivia offered herself as a lab rat."

"A... lab rat?" Fluttershy asks.

"A test subject," Olivia says. "I wanted him to use his power on me to see what it can and can't do."

"What was the verdict?" Twilight asks.

"I didn't try _everything_ I could think of," I say, "but all the stuff I _did_ try worked. Though that could've been because she volunteered. It might not be that simple if I used it on a random person, but I don't feel comfortable finding out."

"Is that why you don't have the geode with you?"

"I didn't think I'd need it here. So, of course, it turned out I _could've_ needed it. I probably would've tried getting Tempest to call off her attack. If that didn't work, forcing Queen Novo to hand over the pearl might've."

"You... You wouldn't _actually_ abuse your power that way, would you?" Rarity asks.

"I was desperate to get back to Olivia! I would have helped _steal_ it if Twilight asked me!"

She sighs. "I guess I understand. Love can make a pony do _crazy_ things."

"I _did_ confront her about it, but she convinced me to not try to stop her."

The train starts moving.

"So what happened after the camp stuff?" Rainbow asks.

Right, back to the story. "Well, my relationship with Sunset didn't last very long. A few weeks later, we broke up. It felt like we were moving too fast, and I started losing interest."

"You two stayed friends, right?" Fluttershy asks.

"Oh, absolutely. We both agreed the break-up wouldn't affect our friendship. Not long after that, we were invited to the set of a Daring Do movie that was being filmed."

"Daring Do?!" Rainbow excitedly asks.

"Uh-huh. Your human counterpart is a _huge_ fan. I take it you are, too?"

"You bet! _And_ we know her _personally!"_

I guess she means the author. "I'm _definitely_ telling our Rainbow that. She'll be _so_ jealous! Anyway, all of us were invited, but I didn't go. I'm not really a fan of those types of movies, and Rarity needed a sitter for Sweetie Belle and Button Mash, so I hung out with them and played Minecraft all day." I look at Olivia. "You wanna tell them?"

"Okay. So, the director's niece, Juniper Montage, was working on the set as a stagehand. She was jealous she didn't get the Daring Do role, so she tried to sabotage the film, hiding the important props, dress, and breaking parts of the set. She wanted to get the lead actress to quit, then return the props and step up when her uncle needed a replacement. We caught her moving the props, and she was fired from the set. As a thank-you for saving the film, the director cast us as extras in the movie."

"About a month later," I continue, "production wrapped up and the movie was released to theaters. All of us were going to see it on opening night. I was gonna pass on it, but Olivia _begged_ me to see it with them. The girls arrived at the theater first, and they found out Juniper was working at the concession stand. She was _really_ mad that the girls cost her the lead role."

"But she did it to herself!" Rainbow says.

"If we weren't there, her plan would've succeeded. She was so mad, she wished they would go away and leave her alone."

"It... doesn't sound like she was all that mad," AJ says.

"She found a small mirror the day before that somehow got infused with Equestrian magic. When she wished the girls would go away, they got sucked into the mirror."

"How would anypony get sucked into a mirror?" Pinkie asks.

"Yeah," Rainbow says. "Mirrors don't work that way here."

"Equestrian magic works in strange ways in our world. Anyway, while this was going on, I was running late and Sunset was visiting Equestria. The journal she uses to chat with Princess Twilight was full, so she had to get a replacement. She came here and ran into Starlight. Starlight wanted to check out our world, so Sunset brought her with. We met up outside the theater and I told them I couldn't get in touch with the others. We walked into the theater and Sunset and I confronted Juniper. Sunset used her power to find out what Juniper did and tried to convince her to let our friends go. Instead, Juniper wished _us_ into the mirror. I tried to use my siren power to stop her, but it didn't work."

"Siren magic doesn't work on people with Equestrian magic in our world," Olivia says.

"Everyone's geodes activated when Sunset and I were put in there, giving Juniper even more power. Starlight tried to get the mirror, but it ended up getting cracked. That started to cause the empty limbo we were in to break apart. This was when Olivia confessed that she still liked me."

"I wanted to wait a little longer so he could get over the breakup, but if I didn't tell him _then_ , I might have never had another chance."

"And I felt the same way. I wasn't sure if she liked me, and I wasn't prepared for rejection so soon after I ruined my relationship with Sunset. I felt _so_ relieved when she said that. Then, just as the last bit of Mirror Land broke apart, Starlight was able to convince Juniper to wish us out of the mirror. And, well... Olivia and I have been a couple ever since."

We kiss.

"So, maybe now you can tell me. Where the hell _did_ you go yesterday?" Olivia asks me.

* * *

We emerge on the other side of the portal, standing on 2 legs instead of 4 and back to our old selves.

Olivia sighs. "It's _so_ good to be back on one-and-a-half legs again."

I grab her hand. "And to have hands."

She looks at me and smiles. "I missed this the most."

We face each other, then hug. "Pony or human, I still love you."

"Love you, too." We kiss.

"You still have it?"

"Uh..." She looks down. The autographed photo is on the ground, which she picks up. "Yup."

"Hey there, lovebirds!" Sunset approaches us.

"Hi, Sunset," Olivia says.

"I thought you guys would've been back last night. Did something happen?"

"Actually, yes," I say, then hold out my arm. "We're in a bit of a hurry, so you might want to..."

Sunset activates her geode, then grabs my arm to see my memories.

"Flare, I _really_ need to –" Olivia starts to say.

"I know," I interrupt. "This won't take long."

A few moments later, Sunset lets go. "Um... Wow..."

"Yup..."

"Not a very good first impression of Equestria..."

"Could've been worse. At least we came back in one piece."

"And the girls forgave her? Just like that?"

"They are a _reeeeally_ forgiving group, just like us."

"It's a good thing I didn't see her again," Olivia says. "I _definitely_ would've beaten the magic out of her, and I doubt Flare would be able to stop me this time."

Sunset looks at Olivia. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah. They didn't hurt me. My stump is a little itchy, but it should be fine. I need to get home and do a proper inspection."

"Want a ride?"

"That would be nice. Even _standing_ is starting to drive me nuts..."

"Worse than during the Friendship Games?"

"Oh, _way_ worse! The irritation, anyway. I'm pretty sure the prosthesis isn't damaged. _Way_ too soon to get _another_ replacement. We're not _made_ of money."

"Are you gonna have to be on crutches for a while?" I ask.

"I _hope_ not."

We walk to Sunset's car. I open the right rear door and Olivia steps inside, then I join her.

"Ah... This feels better already! Well, relatively speaking."

Sunset closes her door as she gets in.

"So I'm going to Olivia's house first, right?"

"Yup," I say.

"Actually," Olivia says, "can you drop _both_ of us off at my house?"

"Uh... Okay." Sunset starts the car, then pulls out of her parking spot.

"You saw how _our_ weekend went," Olivia says. "How was _yours?"_

"It was pretty good," Sunset says. "The girls and I had a relaxing day at the pool yesterday, and Flash and I have a double date in a few hours with Twilight and Timber. I don't suppose you'd like to make it a triple date?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I just wanna get home."

"Fair enough."

"How'd you know when we'd be back?" I ask.

"Princess Twilight wrote to me and said you two were on your way."

"Did we keep you waiting long?"

"Nah, I was only there for a couple minutes. So, uh... In spite of what happened, would either of you want to go back?"

"I... wouldn't mind paying Equestria another visit one day," Olivia says.

"Same here," I say. "I mean, it'd be annoying having to disguise my wings every day I'm there, but I could get used to it."

"And Princess Twilight could help me with basic levitation so I won't have to use my hooves to hold stuff."

"Sounds like you're already planning your next trip," Sunset says.

"As long as it's not during a major event." A lot of those seem to attract trouble over there.

A minute later, we pull up to Olivia's house.

"Well, here's our stop," Olivia says.

"Alright then," Sunset says. "See you two later."

"Later, Sunset."

"See ya, Sunshim," I say.

We get out of the car.

"I still can't believe she passed her driving test the way she did," Olivia says as Sunset drives away.

"I know, right? Instead of actually _driving_ , somehow making a visual pun using a car jack and AJ's name is enough!"

We walk toward the front door.

"At least she doesn't drive like crazy," Olivia says.

I chuckle. "I don't think anyone's _that_ bad of a driver."

"I should play that next time she's driving us somewhere."

"Oh, I bet she'll _love_ that!"

Olivia takes the key from inside the mailbox and unlocks the door.

"I'm gonna check on my stump first."

"Alright. I'll wait in your room."

We walk inside and upstairs. Olivia turns left to go in the bathroom and I turn right and enter her room. I sit in the chair next to her desk. It feels like it's been _ages_ since I've seen this room.

* * *

"Well," Olivia says as she walks in, "it's not as bad as I feared." She's holding her prosthesis and hopping on her good leg. "Just a little red. Cleaning the area and applying rash cream should clear it up in a day or two." She sits on the end of her bed. "I doubt I'll need to be off my prosthesis longer than today."

"That's a relief."

She looks at her sock-covered stump. "Guess it's time..." She takes a deep breath, then looks at me. "Are you ready to hear about the day that changed my life forever?"

"Only if you're ready to tell it."

"I am. I've actually wanted to tell you since we started going out again."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because the day I lost my leg, I promised myself I'd only tell the love of my life the entire story. I had to wait until you said you loved me."

"Well, don't worry. I'll keep this between us."

"I know you will. Alright..." She closes her eyes for a moment. "It was 5 years ago, a couple weeks before the school year started. My dad and I were on our way home from the city pool. We had just pulled out of the parking lot, when..." She takes another deep breath.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, I _want_ to. I've just... I've never told this to anybody."

"You're not gonna be an emotional wreck after this, are you?"

"I doubt it. I only lost my leg. So... We were at a stoplight. Our light turned green, so Dad drove into the intersection. Somebody didn't see their light was red, and just about T-boned us. Her car slammed into the right front of ours, pretty much dead center on the wheel. Dad only had the wind knocked out of him and got a couple bruises, but my legs were pinned down by the wreckage."

Is _that_ how a crash like that would work? "Uh... I'm no collision expert, but I doubt an impact at that spot could do enough interior damage to trap someone's legs and injure one of them enough to require amputation while not causing serious injuries to other parts of the body."

"I said 'pretty much' dead center. I didn't see the _exact_ impact point! I was also stretching my legs out."

"I... still don't think it would cause that much damage."

"Well, it did!" she says in a slightly annoyed tone. "And can you at least let me _finish_ before you start criticizing my story?!"

"Okay, okay, sorry. I'll shut up."

"Now then... Once I caught my breath, I noticed my right leg was trapped. It was a... bit of a mess, and I tried pulling it out in a panic. It wouldn't budge, and trying to get free actually made it hurt more than it already did. I was so desperate, I kept trying to yank it out, making it worse until Dad told me to stop."

Damn... "What... What part of your leg was pinned down?"

"My ankle. It was actually pinned against the bottom of the dashboard. A few sharp edges were digging in further up my leg, and the impact snapped both bones in that leg. I had to sit there in agony for 10 minutes until paramedics showed up and got me out. At the hospital, the doctors said my attempts to get free did a lot more harm."

"So... then, they had to..."

She removes the sock from her stump. "My panicking caused so much damage, the only option they had was to amputate." She sighs. "I didn't feel like myself for weeks after that, and I was petrified of getting in _any_ vehicle. It took 2 months of therapy to reach the point where I wasn't a nervous wreck on a daily basis. When the school year started, the students just wouldn't leave me alone. I hated my popularity in third grade, and this was even worse. So much fake sympathy and nosiness... The _last_ thing I wanted was to be constantly reminded of how different I was."

Geez... I join her on the bed and rest a hand on her shoulder. "I couldn't imagine going through all that..."

She removes the long sock from her prosthesis. "Once my stump was healed enough, my family doctor referred me to a prosthetist and physical therapist to help with getting a prosthetic leg and learning to walk again. It took another 6 months to get back to walking as well as I did before the accident." She hands it to me. "I've always used this type of prosthesis."

It looks... a little different than I expected, especially after seeing her pony form's. "I thought a prosthesis has a metal rod."

"They do. This one has the rod inside the casing. I wanted a limb I could easily cover with long socks so I wouldn't draw more attention to myself."

"Why not wear stockings or pantyhose?"

"They're too translucent. Besides, I never liked wearing those."

"I see..." I return it to her and she sets it next to the bed.

"Thankfully, it worked. When I started my freshman year, nearly everybody forgot about me being different. Well, until Sunset found out a year later, and you know what came of _that_." She sighs. "Well, that's all. Now you know pretty much everything about me."

Uh... Wow... That's a lot to take in.

"Well... That answered a _lot_ of questions I had." I grab her hand and smile. "You were _really_ strong to overcome losing a leg."

"I _had_ to be strong. Once I got over the fear and dejection of losing it, I knew I wanted to get back on my feet. It was very difficult relearning how to walk, but I kept telling myself it would all be worth it to not be on crutches every day... or in an _awful_ wheelchair..."

"Why _do_ you hate wheelchairs, anyway? I never understood that."

"They suck! I hate how you have to push the wheels, and having somebody push me around makes me feel so weak and helpless."

"So why do you have one in the garage and one in your closet?"

"As a last resort. In the event I have to be off my prosthesis and both sets of crutches are broken, I can still get around without hopping or crawling. Thankfully, that hasn't happened."

"Well, if you ever have to use it again, would you let me push you?"

"Uh... I'm fairly certain I won't, but sure."

I look at her stump. "So... Is there anything else you're hiding from me?" I say in a non-accusatory tone.

"Well..." She hesitates. She did the same thing yesterday. Is there something even bigger she wants to tell me? "That's all you're getting today."

"Fair enough." I kiss her, then look at her good leg. I've always thought it was odd that she keeps _both_ covered. "You don't have a deformed left leg, do you?"

"No... Why?" she asks, confused.

"Well, maybe not deformed. You _do_ always cover it up, even when you can't wear your prosthesis."

"The leg's fine. There were quite a few scars after the accident, but they've healed." She takes off the sock. It looks like a normal leg. "I'm so used to wearing long socks, it feels weird when I wear short ones."

"So even when you're wearing long pants..."

"Yup."

I shrug my shoulders. "Whatever's comfortable, I guess." I sit on the floor. "Can I?"

She holds out her stump. At first glance, it looks the same as what I expected. It's a little red around the area that makes contact with the... stump hole? Or whatever it's called. I put my hand on it. It feels like a lump of leg muscles. "You ever get any phantom pains?"

"Off and on for the first 8 months or so. I still get the occasional sensation, but it doesn't hurt anymore."

I move my hand to back of it. I feel an indent on that part of her skin. "Huh..." I lift her stump and look underneath. "So... this scar is where they..."

"Yeah. It looked a _lot_ worse for the first couple weeks. It was like Frankenstein's monster, only less green."

"Got any pictures?"

She looks taken aback. "You... You want to _see_ it?"

"I've seen how your stump looks _now_. Why not see how it was back then?"

She sighs. "Well... My parents have some photos. We can show you when they get home."

"Thanks." I wonder if they have a picture of the original leg. I sit back on the bed. "So... now that we're alone, could you... tell me what happened back at the festival?"

She sighs. "It _wasn't_ my best moment. After I hid from the storm clouds, I heard Tempest. Once I heard everyone panicking, I moved to the back of the tent, hoping they wouldn't find me."

"You were in the first tent I checked? Why didn't you respond when I said your name?!"

"I was terrified! I _couldn't_ say anything!"

If she had just made a _sound,_ I could've been there with her!

"The guards found me fairly quickly and threw me into one of those cages. When I didn't see you anywhere, I started to panic. I kept asking where you were. They weren't saying anything, and I got more upset. I started getting louder and more belligerent, eventually slamming into the cage over and over and _screaming_ for them to bring you to me."

"And that's how you lost your voice?"

"Uh-huh... They tried to restrain me, and I got even louder, practically _screeching_ to let me see you and for them to get the... hell off."

"That's when they..."

She looks down. "I never... I never felt more alone in my entire life. Total sensory deprivation for _hours_... Couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't speak, I could barely move..."

So it turns out my fears were spot-on. "How... How did you go from _that_ to wanting to _stay_ in Equestria for another day?"

"I won't lie, I thought it was _all_ over for a while." She lies down on her bed. "Eventually, I remembered what Twilight said about these types of things being very rare, and how they've always pulled through. That's when I knew I had to stay hopeful. No matter how long it took, we _were_ going to be saved. By the time the girls defeated the Storm King and freed everyone, I was physically and mentally exhausted. Another hour, and I probably would've given up for good. It was getting to the point where I _genuinely_ thought I'd never see anybody I love again."

I lie down next to her. "I'm _so_ sorry I left you behind."

She grabs my hand and smiles. "It wasn't your fault. I didn't tell you where I was, and following those six was your best chance to get somewhere safe. I probably would've done the same if I was in your position. I'm just glad you weren't hurt."

"And _I'm_ glad _you_ weren't hurt." We kiss. That reminds me... "You didn't let out that we were human when you snapped, did you?"

"Um... No. Why?"

"When Tempest captured us, she called me a human. I couldn't figure out how she knew, and after what you just told me, I thought you might've accidentally let it slip."

"Nope. I only said you were my boyfriend."

"Huh..."

"Maybe she was eavesdropping when you were telling the girls about us."

"I don't think she planted a bug on us."

"Well, did you tell anyone else?"

"Just Capper." Wait... "Oh."

"He wanted to sell all of you, right? Maybe he mentioned it to Tempest when talking about how 'exotic' you were."

"He probably could've settled his debt from me alone."

"No doubt! Next up for auction, we've got this _handsome_ orange pony. Looks can be deceiving, folks, as he's actually a _human_ from another world! You'll be the envy of your friends with _this_ exotic creature! We'll start the bidding at $100!" She starts doing the fast-talking stuff auctioneers do.

"You're pretty good at that."

"I've been watching a lot of Auction Wars lately."

"I love you, Liv."

"I love you too, Flarey." We kiss again.

* * *

 **A/N: Starting with this, all future stories will refer to Cloudflare by his nickname.**

 **Also, bonus points to anyone who picked up on the chapter titles' theme.**


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